The Army, Navy and Air Force have discharged 16,000 soldiers in the past 10 years

RIO – Having become at the center of a political crisis due to involvement in corruption scandals, public mismanagement and negligence in the face of coup-mongering revolts by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the Armed Forces have expelled no less than 16,266 soldiers from the Army, Navy and Air Force in the past decade. . Data obtained by condition, Through the Access to Information Act (LAI), it also shows that the military leadership was more lenient with the Air Force and Navy during the previous Army Captain’s government. The number of sanctions decreased by 28% under Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro’s former aide, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro César Barbosa Cid, is set to be the next to join the list of Brazilian forces excluded. With accusations of forging documents, using public office to commit crimes, in addition to possible accusations of participating in the January 8 coup attempt and in the investigations into the Al-Jawaher case in Saudi Arabia, the top leadership is just waiting for a legal definition of the charges against the CID.

If punished, Bolsonaro’s former right-hand man will join a list of 16,000 soldiers dismissed from the army alone, from 2012 to 2023, according to the General Personnel Department of the Army’s General Staff. This is the case, for example, with Elton Gonçalves Moraes Barros, a leading Bolsonaro supporter and self-declared “01 Bolsonaro,” who was investigated by the Federal Police (PF) for his participation in a fraud scheme related to coronavirus vaccination data at the Ministry of Health. He was dismissed from the army in 2006, after the High Military Tribunal found there was a “strong” body of evidence indicating that the then-captain’s behavior and attitudes were not “consistent” with his status as an officer. .

Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), historian Francisco Carlos Teixeira da Silva was Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid’s Professor at the Army Command and General Staff School (Eceme). An expert on military affairs, Teixeira was an advisor to the Ministry of Defense until Bolsonaro’s rise to power. According to the professor, the army command should have already opened an investigation with the military police against “Al-Sayed” to investigate the accusations against him, and that the force “turns a blind eye” to the politicization of the barracks.

As dangerous as it is morally and behaviorally, the forces turn a blind eye to the political issue. There is no standard of punishment for public expressions, political statements, discussions, and statements against politicians. There is a very low level of punishment. This historian explains, since 1923, since Tenentismo, the politicization of the armed forces.

According to Teixeira, the Cid case exposed the Brazilian military: “The military turned a blind eye to the political side of the Cid case. That only changed when the evidence of the health booklet forgery came out. For the army, it’s a serious crime. Since then, the shields surrounding it have cracked. I think “This is a strategy of allowing all civil investigations to be completed and then requesting that the criminal investigation be transferred to a military prison and open a military investigation, which is less rigorous in its case than the common law. It seems to me an attempt to obstruct the work of military justice.”

Ailton was accused of a series of “serious offences”, part of which STM did not even analyze, due to the description of the episodes. The dismissal took into account instances in which the then-captain disrespected other officers and criticized the military in interviews.

Military personnel may be licensed or excluded from the ranks of the Armed Forces in accordance with the criteria established by the Military Statutes. According to the disciplinary report of the forces, expulsion may be carried out when there is a final judgment, when there is no possibility of appeal, or when the army commits a crime against the security of the forces. the state.

According to political scientist Marcos Iannone, professor at the Federal University of Fluminense (UFF), Mauro Cide’s retention of the armed forces should be reviewed after his final conviction.

“The case of Lieutenant-Colonel Mauro Cid is gaining more and more strong elements for his involvement in the continuing accusations. In the event of conviction, in addition to it being politically unsustainable to keep him in the forces, military law is clear on the principles of expulsion. Iannone says the armed forces are cautious in keeping him until it is done Convict him.

Data collected by condition They show that during the four years of Bolsonaro’s government, the Navy and Air Force removed and expelled fewer soldiers than Dilma Rousseff (Workers’ Party), in both terms, and Michel Temer (MDB), in proportion to the years of rule.

1,378 Navy and Air Force personnel have been sanctioned since 2012: 266 have been fired and 1,112 have been deported. The number of penalties decreased by 28% during the past four years, compared to the three years of the Temer administration and the first year of Dilma’s second term (from 2015 to 2018).

The army reported that it has 672 military organizations across the country, almost all of which enjoy administrative independence to carry out the necessary disciplinary measures, in a decentralized manner. According to the army, the institution does not have a specific body that compiles documents on the reason for expulsion, which are produced in the units.

According to Professor Francisco Teixeira, the most common punishment cases in the military include embezzlement and ideological falsehood.