BrianMier Profile picture
Correspondent for @teleSURenglish TV news program "From the South". Native Chicagoan who has lived 28 years in Brazil. Editor of "Year of Lead".

Aug 24, 2021, 10 tweets

Brazil's Military Police are a living legacy of the dictatorship that was never purged of its torturers and death squad actors after 1985. Controlled by the state governors, officers aren't required to respond to the regular rule of law, having their own parallel courts. Thread

Active duty military police are barred from participating in protests or making public statements about politics. This week Military Police in São Paulo, Rio, Santa Catarina, Espírito Santo, Ceará and Paraíba, have publicly supported Sept. 7 anti-Supreme Court protest.

Last week, São Paulo governor Doria fired Military Police Colonel Aleksander Lacerda, who oversaw 7 battalions and 5000 police officers, after he made a series of threats against the Supreme Court online and called on active duty officers to go to the Sept. 7 protest in Brasilia.

Yesterday, during a meeting between 25 state governors in Brasilia, there was a long conversation about the issue of active duty police officers supporting an "institutional rupture", because the apparently purpose of the September 7 protest is to storm the Supreme Court building

It looks like, despite his purge of non-supportive generals, President Bolsonaro has been unable to get the armed forces on board with his plan of an Institutional Act 5 style autocoup on September 7. Instead, he is working with militias (who are made up of off duty and ex-cops).

The problem is, in practical terms, there is no real operational hierarchy above the state government level when it comes to military police. This fact went over most anglo journalist's heads in 2013 when they blamed police violence against protesters on President Rousseff.

Steve Bannon has been advising the Bolsonaros since the 2018 election season. I believe they all know that a Jan 6 Capitol incursion style attack on the Brazilian Supreme Court will not succeed but are doing it to spread confusion on the legitimacy of democratic institutions.

Brazil has 26 military police hierarchies. Policing styles vary drastically between states. Ex: Rio de Janeiro police killed 1500 people in 2019. In, larger, neighboring Minas Gerais, they killed 105. It's doubtful they will all come together to overthrow the Supreme Court.

I think there will a failed attempt to storm the building on Sept 7, some military police officers will be involved, and it will be used to strengthen the preemptive narrative Bannon INC. is helping Bolsonaro build about the illegitimacy of the 2022 presidential elections.

In short Bolsonaro family and their comprador bourgeoisie and international financial elite backers in the fossil fuel, hedge fund, agribusiness and mining industries know they can't beat Lula in a free and fair election, so they are trying to destroy the elections.

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