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News > Latin America

Brazil's Bolsonaro: 'No Doubt' Military Men Will Serve in Gov't

  • Far-right Brazilian presidential hopeful Jair Bolsonaro.

    Far-right Brazilian presidential hopeful Jair Bolsonaro. | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 August 2018
Opinion

“To leave no doubt, there will be a bunch of military ministers" in my government if elected president, said Jair Bolsonaro.

Shortly after announcing reserve general Hamilton Mourao as his vice-presidential candidate, Rio de Janeiro congressman and presidential hopeful, Jair Bolsonaro, said that if elected his cabinet will be teaming up with military personnel.

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Bolsonaro affirmed that some government ministries will be occupied by military personnel if elected president, saying that “to leave no doubt, there will be a bunch of military ministers. I don't know (how many). It depends on their competency and capabilities. There are some ministries that don't fit military personnel because they have no experience in this...I believe it's difficult to make a military person corrupt.”

He went on to admit that while selecting military generals to government posts doesn't guarantee they will be incorruptible, he said such cases will be “much less common...What the people want is for Brazil to function. It doesn't matter if the (government post will be occupied by) the military, men, gays, but that it works.

To back his argument, Bolsonaro pointed to how he chose Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes to be Science and Technology department if elected president.

During former President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment vote in 2016, Bolsonaro used his congressional speaking time not only to rally in favor of her ouster but also to praise Carlos Brilhante Ustra, the colonel who headed the dictatorship's notorious torture program in the 1970s.

He cited Ustra as "the source of Dilma Rousseff's dread," referring to the fact that, as a young woman, Rousseff had been imprisoned for three years for being a leftist guerrilla and was tortured, including being electrocuted, under his watch.

Bolsonaro has also proposed restoring military rule and has been quoted as saying that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet "should have killed more people." 

According to UOL, Bolsonaro appears in second place, behind imprisoned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in presidential election surveys. He comes in first only when Lula's name doesn't appear on the ballot.

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