If you don’t mind my asking, what does article 142 do? I found a few things which seemed to indicate people wanted to interpret it to allow for military coup/putsch, but I have no idea if that interpretation is based in reality.
It was a freestyle interpretation based on the opinion of a conservative Brazilian jurist. The language used in this article of the constitution is a little vague, allowing some people to believe that the armed forces, especially the army, are the fourth branch of the republic’s powers, akind of power that towers above the others. Article 142 supposedly empowers the military to act as moderators of democracy, something that only Emperor Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II exercised in the 19th century. Of course, this interpretation is only valid in the minds of people who believe that the earth is flat.
The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the national congress, was “obliged” to declare that this article did not allow the military to intervene in politics. But it is our own Q conspiracy. A lot of people believe it.
ETA
Art. 142. The Armed Forces, comprised of the Navy, the Army and the Air Force,
are permanent and regular national institutions, organized on the basis of hierarchy
and discipline, under the supreme authority of the President of the Republic, and
are intended for the defense of the Country, for the guarantee of the constitutional
powers, and, on the initiative of any of these, of law and order. (CA No. 18, 1998;
CA No. 41, 2003)
ETA the Brazilian Constitution in English:
According to Bolsonaristas, article 142 can be invoked by the president when he feels that the nation is in danger. For them Mr. Lula da Silva is a convicted felon and could never run in an election and that the only way for Mr. Bolsonaro being defeated would be through a dirty ploy to steal victory from his hands.
There is no greater danger than a communist in the presidency of Brazil, so the military could/must intervene. Even this freestyle interpretation has its factions. Some believe that the Army could do something if only the president call for help, while more radical groups preach that the military can do whatever they want and seize power as soon as they smell communism or any other threat.
Thank you, especially for the PDF from the Organization of American States.
But… Sources heard by journalists say that Mr. Bolsonaro is afraid of being arrested as soon as he steps on Brazilian soil, as an investigation is underway and the result of which could leave him ineligible for more than 8 years.
The Lula administration fears, with good reason, that the opposition would use the committee to muddy the waters of responsibility. The far-right wants to gear the investigation toward firehosing public discourse with falsehoods about the attack, seeking to convince supporters that the riots were sparked by leftist “agent provocateurs.”
There are still risks for the government. A request for a joint select committee — with members of both the House and Senate — has cleared the thresholds in each chamber. The government is trying to stifle such efforts, allegedly using pork barrel funds to sway lawmakers to withdraw their support for the committee’s creation.
Bad news. They are already doing it.
Bolsonaro says he will return to Brazil on March 30, the eve of the 59th anniversary of the last military coup. For security reasons, he will have to arrive discreetly and leave through the back door of the airport, with no reception committee or fan clubs.
Sources heard by Jornal O Globo comment that the former president was very angry and blamed Lula and the Workers’ Party for treatment, according to allies of Mr. Bolsonaro, that only prisoners and criminals deserve…
The Brazilian Federal Police continues to investigate people allegedly involved with the anti-democratic acts that culminated in the invasions of public buildings in the capital on January 8th.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes has in his hands a document with the result of an investigation carried out in an apocryphal draft that outlined a plan for a coup d’état. This investigation points to the names of several individuals whose fingerprints were found in the seditious document.
This draft is part of the list of evidence attached to the process that investigates Mr Bolsonaro’s participation in attacks on elections and democracy in the country.
To make matters worse for the seditious ones, according to the newspaper O Estado de Minas, an intelligence report made by rogue agents listed the places where Mr. Lula obtained more votes in the first round of the 2022 election. According to the Federal Police investigation, this report served as the basis for a plan to prevent voters from reaching the polling places.
https://en.mercopress.com/2023/04/05/new-rules-for-demonstrations-in-brasilia-following-jan.-8-riots
They were charged with two crimes: inciting the Armed Forces to act against the constitutional powers; and criminal association (equivalent to conspiracy to commit a crime in U.S. law). In a statement, the prosecutor general’s office said all charges concern people arrested at a campsite set up nearby the Army’s Brasília headquarters. The arrests were made on the day after the attacks.
Four members of the Liberal Party were arrested today.
A leaked video caused the resignation of a minister in the government of Mr. Lula da Silva.
Mr. Gonçalves Dias, director of the Institutional Security Bureau of the Brazilian Government, an officer with a Minister status, had to resign after a leaked video, in which he appears at Palácio do Planalto, during the infamous invasion of wannabe insurectionists last january. The scenes show the former minister circulating among the coup protesters, apparently without expelling them or at least admonishing them.
Images show the minister’s performance during coup acts on January 8. The Bolsonarist opposition caucus accused Him of being part of a staged invasion, a hoax devised by the leftist government. Some opposition elements were spreading conspiracy theories and asking for the establishment of a congressional investigation to determine what really happened on January 8, 2023 in Brasilia. Now, even members of the government think that this Inquiry will be inevitable.
The resignation request was made after Dias met with Lula and other ministers at the Planalto Palace.
Bolsonaristas were pressing for the creation of this inquiry. Since January they have been spreading conspiracy theories about how those pitiful scenes of destruction were actually a well elaborate hoax, perpetrated by the evil communists.
The Government feared that the Bolsonarist opposition would seek to create chaos and gain free exposure in the media and social networks. After the leak of a video that showed Mr. Gonçalves Dias, former director of the Institutional Security Office, apparently fraternizing with the seditionists, the Government had no choice but to accept the creation of this inquiry. Now they are thinking about damage containment strategies.
IMHO it is too late.
In the same decision, Moraes also ordered the Federal Police (PF) to collect, within 48 hours, the testimony of all GSI employees who were identified after recordings released by CNN Brazil showed former GSI minister Gonçalves Dias and other people inside the Planalto Palace during the coup plotting.
