Latin America
Related: About this forumTanks in the streets of Brazil: As lawmakers vote on paper ballots, Bolsonaro holds military parade
Following a request from President Jair Bolsonaro, Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto has ordered the Navy to prepare a parade of armored vehicles, tanks, and weaponry in front of the presidential palace tomorrow.
The purpose of the parade is merely for the Navy to present Mr. Bolsonaro with an invitation to attend Operation Formosa, a week-long traditional military training session which will take place 60 kilometers from the capital Brasília and begin on August 16. It is customary for military commanders to hand the invitation in person but not to be escorted by combat vehicles.
The display of strength comes on the same day as the lower house is scheduled to vote down a bill, sponsored by the president, to introduce paper ballots as a supplement to Brazils fully electronic voting system.
The Congress building as well as the Supreme Court sits just across the street from the presidential palace, which led many to interpret this unconventional parade as an overt act of intimidation against the other branches of power. For weeks, the president has threatened not to allow elections to take place next year without auditable ballots, despite no credible fraud allegations having surfaced since Brazil adopted the electronic system, nearly 25 years ago.
Defense Minister Braga Netto who called for the military parade has indulged Mr. Bolsonaros push for paper ballots, reportedly going as far as threatening Congress with a military coup should lawmakers strike it down.
Besides the probable defeat of the paper ballot bill in the House, high courts have placed Mr. Bolsonaro under investigation for his remarks trying to discredit the electoral system. The probe could ultimately cost the president his eligibility in the 2022 election and Mr. Bolsonaro seems willing to test how far the courts are willing to go in holding him to account.
Source:
https://brazilian.report/liveblog/2021/08/09/paper-ballots-military-parade/
EYESORE 9001
(25,974 posts)Cheeto Benito is jealous.
Golden Raisin
(4,613 posts)Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Eugene
(61,945 posts)Source: The Guardian
Armoured vehicles roll through streets of Brasília as congress prepares to vote on plans to change Brazils voting system
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Tue 10 Aug 2021 16.35 BST
Critics have denounced Jair Bolsonaros banana republic-style decision to send combat vehicles on to the streets of Brazils capital for a rare military parade in what was widely seen as a beleaguered presidents ham-fisted attempt to project strength.
Bolsonaro, whose ratings have plunged as a result of his chaotic response to the Covid pandemic, looked on from the marble ramp outside the presidential palace as a motorcade of armoured vehicles trundled past on Tuesday morning.
Ridiculous. Grotesque. Pitiful. Needless. Banana Republic stuff, tweeted the Brasília-based journalist Brunno Melo as the procession advanced under a perfect blue sky.
The hastily arranged parade which experts said had no precedent in the years since the restoration of democracy in 1985 was reportedly ordered by Bolsonaro last Friday and came on the same day members of congress were scheduled to vote on highly controversial Bolsonaro-backed plans to change Brazils voting system.
It also followed a succession of incendiary and anti-democratic remarks from Brazils leader, an authoritarian-minded former army captain who has said next years presidential elections may not happen if the changes are not approved.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/10/bolsonaro-banana-republic-military-parade-condemned-by-critics-brazil
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)The Brazilian fascist right has been howling for a military dictatorship for years, seemingly from the beginning of the progressive leadership from Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, who made deep inroads into the overwhelming poverty of Brazil's intentionally neglected masses.
The privileged elites have fought like madmen from the first. No doubt this vicious clown believes he's got the support to rip away any progress gained, and return the country to adequate living conditions only for the completely European descended oligarchs, no schooling for future generations, no medical treatment, no aid for shelter or food, only the view of their future suffering, with prison and torture minimally assured if they try to protest, just as they already know has happened.
Remember Bolsonaro publically dedicated his vote in the Legislature to the officer who personally tortured the previous Presisident, Dilma Rousseff, when she was imprisoned as a dissident during the earlier dictatorship.
Young future President Dilma Rousseff sitting in her military trial as officials try to hide their faces.