Brazil’s Bolsonaro Government is Its Own Worst Enemy
By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – After three and a half months in power, the Administration of President Jair Bolsonaro seems to be its own worst enemy with fighting among members of the government and Bolsonaro allies being reported by the media on a daily basis.
But just as the latest crisis between President Bolsonaro’s guru, Olavo de Carvalho, and the country’s Vice President, Retired Army General Hamilton Mourão, seemed to be dying down, Bolsonaro’s son, Carlos, took to social media to attack the VP.
The Rio de Janeiro lawmaker called Carvalho ‘a gigantic reference of what has been going on for a long time in Brazil’ after the declaration of Mourão that the philosopher should concentrate on his role as an ‘astrologer’ and not meddle in Brazilian politics from his home in the state of Virginia, U.S.
According to Carlos, to disregard Carvalho’s comments and influence can ‘only be due to three reasons: total ignorance, not really caring about the real problems of Brazil or thinking that the world revolves around him/her.”
The spat between Carvalho and Mourão forced President Bolsonaro to choose sides, and on Sunday, for the first time, he lightly criticized Carvalho.
“Professor Olavo de Carvalho has played a considerable role in exposing the conservative ideas that were opposed to the anachronistic message worshiped by the left and that so badly damaged our country,” said a note by the President read by government spokesperson Otavio do Rego Barros.
“However, his recent statements against members of the Administration do not contribute to the uniqueness of efforts and consequent achievement of the objectives proposed in our government’s project,” added the President.
Bolsonaro’s censure was in relation to a video posted by Carvalho on You Tube where he questions how military schools can contribute to the country and said that the military regime between 1964 and 1985, had ‘destroyed the politics of the right-wing’.
“What was the last contribution of military schools to the nation’s culture? These people came to power in 1964, destroyed right-wing politicians and left what? The communists,” said Carvalho on the video that by Sunday had more than 100,000 views.
According to the self-proclaimed philosopher, the President should be considered a martyr ‘to put up with those sons of b…. around him’.
Mourão responded quickly suggesting that Carvalho stick to his conspiracy theories and leave the administration of the government to those in office.
To which Carvalho responded: “The mere fact of interpreting the things I have said about the military regime as ‘criticism’ rather than a simple historical revision already shows that Mourão does not reach the level of truth and falsehood, only that of friend and enemy. He is a teenager totally disqualified for any serious intellectual debate.”
At that point, Bolsonaro stepped in to try to ease the tension. According to the President’s spokesperson, the President is still convinced that Carvalho, ‘with his patriotic spirit, is trying to contribute to positive change to the future of Brazil’.
With the statement made by Bolsonaro, this latest crisis seemed to be dying down on Monday afternoon. Peace, however, lasted only a few hours. Early on Tuesday morning, Carlos Bolsonaro, on his Twitter account, said he was surprised that Mourão had accepted the invitation by U.S. think tank Wilson Center to speak about the new government.
According to Bolsonaro, the Center had explicitly noted that it would discuss Bolsonaro’s first hundred days in office, which according to the Center was ‘marked by political paralysis, largely due to the successive crisis generated by the circle next to the president, if not by himself’.
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