But the matter goes back much further, to the founding of the country. After all, the republic was established by a military coup in 1889. “Army officers,” is the famous Brazilian lawyer. Heráclito Sobral Pinto once said “never accept that you are not the master of the republic”. In the 130 years since, the military has loitered across Brazil — as political scientist Adam Przeworski wrote, referring to democracies affected by the overwhelming military — “like menacing shadows , ready to strike down anyone who goes too far in undermining their values and interests.”
And those benefits are substantial. With no war in sight, Brazil has 15th largest standing army in the world, with 351,000 active service members, 167,000 active officers and 233,400 pensioners, according to Transparency portal. Regarding wages, the federal government spend more more on defense than on education — and almost five times more than on health. (By the way, this country has a huge public health care system.) The expected budget of the Department of Defense this year is $23 billion, 77% of which is earmarked for employee salaries.
Military officials enjoy many privileges, with their own systems of education, housing, health care and even criminal justice. Apparently they were exempt from Brazil’s recent pension reform. Lucky for them: In 2019, the average salary for a retired member of the military was over six times of a retired civilian.
Not only did military officials benefit from such generosity, but so did their families. For example, 137,900 unmarried daughters military members will receive their father’s pension for the rest of their lives – a list that includes two daughters of the colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustrawho was accused of torturing hundreds of people and retired with the rank of marshal.
After Mr Bolsonaro became president in 2019, the military flooded the civilian government. In 2020, 6,157 military officers — half of them are active — work for the federal government, more than double what it was in 2018. At one point, 11 out of them. 26 ministers In Mr. Bolsonaro’s administration were current or former officials, including the health minister for much of the pandemic, General Eduardo Pazuello, who has yet to be held accountable for misconduct. mine.
The new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, tried slowly remove soldiers government — especially after the January 8 uprising, in which the military played a shady role. If the military hadn’t been involved in the riots, it certainly wouldn’t have done much to stop them. In January, Mr. Lula fired the head of the army, who is said to have protected pro-Bolsonaro rioters at a plantation in Brasília on the night of the attack. It’s encouraging, a supreme court judge ruled that military officers involved in the riots would be tried by a civil court.
It’s a start, but there’s more work to be done before we emerge from the military’s shadow. Then, at last, we can transfer its plans to the realm of fantasy, where they belong.
