The former Brazilian minister defended the 1964 coup, saying it “saved Brazil from turning to communism.” Deputy of the Psol will file lawsuits for considering the statements an attack on democracy.
The former minister of the Brazilian Security Office, General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, defended during a testimony in the commission of investigation of the attacks of January 8, in Brasilia, that the coup d’état of 1964 “saved the country.”
“The 1964 movement saved the country”said Heleno Ribeiro, who was rebuked for his words and recalled how that coup established a bloody military dictatorship that killed, kidnapped and tortured opponents.
“Your Honor believes that the The 1964 movement killed thousands of people, what did not happen, he believes that it was a movement of revenge, of hate, when the movement of 1964 saved Brazil from turning to communism. Just read the story, Brazil was one step away from becoming a communist country,” replied the former government minister headed by former President Jair Bolsonaro.
The deputy of the Socialism and Freedom Party (Psol), Fábio Félix, then accused the general of having committed a crime after his praise of the 1964 coup and announced that he would initiate legal actions against what he considered an “attack on democracy and the State”. of law”. .
The former minister also questioned the use of the term “coup” to refer to what happened on January 8 in Brasilia, when thousands of “Bolsonaristas” violently invaded the headquarters of the three powers.
“Treating it as a ‘coup’ is not correct. The coup needs to have leaders, it is not an easy action, much less in Brazil. The term coup is being used with extreme simplicity,” the general theorized, who also described as “fanciful” the description of a coup attempt in Brasilia perpetrated by supporters of Bolsonaro to annul the electoral result.
Heleno Ribeiro also took advantage of the speech to praise the camps that were set up in front of the Army headquarters in Brasilia, where Bolsonaro’s supporters called for a military intervention. For him, they were nothing more than “healthy” spaces, where “he prayed a lot” and “people met to talk about politics.”
“There were many women and children (…) It lasted a long time without notable events or harmful consequences. It was a new experience in terms of political, orderly, disciplined demonstration, which must have influenced Brazilian political movements,” said the general, without mentioning that many people who destroyed public buildings in Brasilia were in those camps.
Heleno Ribeiro was heard this Thursday at the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI) on Anti-democratic Acts, of the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District, a state of the Brazilian federation where the country’s capital, Brasilia, is located.
The former minister was invited to comment on the acts of vandalism on December 12, in Brasilia, and the coup acts on January 8, when supporters of Bolsonaro invaded and destroyed the headquarters of the Federal Supreme Court, Congress and the Planalto Palace, forcing the police intervention to restore order and draw condemnation from the international community.
The invasion began after militants from the Brazilian extreme right, supporters of the former president, defeated by Lula da Silva in last October’s elections, called a protest on the Esplanada dos Ministérios to try to overthrow the new government.
Source: Observadora
