The Night of the Generals

What was previously considered a suspicion has been confirmed by a highly regarded source within the military, who guaranteed and detailed the presence of Mrs. Maria Aparecida, wife of General Eduardo Villas Boas, among those camped in front of the barracks on the night of January 8th. 

Yes, Dona Cida, as she is called by those closest to her, was in the Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Square), along with her daughter, known as Titi. Both risked being taken to the Papuda prison aboard one of the buses made available to the Military Police of the Federal District that night, intended to collect those who vandalized public buildings. 

The confirmation also justifies the measure taken by the Army commander, General Júlio César Arruda, to line up armored vehicles at the entrance to the barracks. His action was coordinated with General Gustavo Henrique Dutra, head of the Planalto Military Command, and aimed to buy time in the negotiations that would begin from that moment on. 

While Arruda hurried to position the armored vehicles, preventing the entry of the Military Police, tasked with carrying out the arrest order given by the interventor, Ricardo Capelli, to the terrorists, General Dutra called General Gonçalves Dias. He urgently needed to speak with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who by then had already returned from his trip to Araraquara (SP), where he was surprised by the terrorist attempt. 

Dutra learned that in the heated exchange he had with Minister Flávio Dino, General Arruda was incisive – not to say rude – but did not reveal the real reason why he would not allow entry into the camp that night. Upon reporting the impasse to Commander Gustavo Dutra, the commander of the Planalto Palace bypassed Arruda and called Lula directly. The purpose of the call was to be transparent. To be clear. There was no way to release the prisoners, under penalty of exposing General Eduardo Villas Boas, one of the most respected figures among the military, by arresting the daughter and wife of the man whom everyone calls, according to the source, "the leader." 

Terrified by the idea of ​​Villas Boas's demoralization, which would further tarnish the image of the Armed Forces and the "leader," Dutra mustered his courage and managed to get General Gonçalves Dias to pass the phone to Lula. Dutra then explained to the president the reason for Arruda's actions and the risk of uprising if Dona Cida were put on one of the buses, along with her daughter, heading to prison. Faced with this situation, Lula had no choice but to surrender to the facts. The campers had all night to leave the encampment. 

That's how – although the number of prisoners on the night of January 8th was 243 – many escaped from prison. The following day, another 1152 people were arrested and, throughout 2023, as a result of search and seizure operations, another 35 were apprehended.

The situation became a sticking point for Lula and worsened when Arruda refused to reverse the nomination of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, former aide-de-camp to Jair Bolsonaro, for the Land Operations Command right next door in Goiás. The same Cid who had been made available for the coup, under the command of General Estevam Theophilo, according to investigations by the Federal Police. 

Minister José Mucio was left with the task of informing the general that he was no longer in command of the Army and had been duly placed on reserve duty on Saturday, January 21, 2023. The change was published in an extra edition of the "Official Gazette of the Union".

"Obviously, after these recent events, the issue of the encampments and the events of January 8th, relations, especially within the Army Command, suffered a fracture in the level of trust, and we felt that we needed to stop this right from the start so that we could overcome this episode," said the minister, alongside the new commander, Tomás Paiva, in a statement to the press early that Saturday evening.

As for General Dutra, he has taken on the role of 5th Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army. The change of position was announced to him on February 16th, through a statement released to the entire troop.

The “leader,” Villas Boas, who went down in history less for his leadership role in the troops, but mainly for sending a tweet, now classified by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes as a “knife to the throat,” in an interview with journalist Mario Vitor. In the post, the general veiledly threatened a military intervention if the Supreme Court did not vote to deny a habeas corpus that would free Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from prison. The outcome is well known. The Supreme Court voted against it, and Lula was imprisoned on April 7, 2018.

Mauro Cid runs the risk of being a “fictitious dead”

Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, the former aide-de-camp, was arrested, but due to a plea bargain agreement, he gained the right to serve precautionary measures under house arrest and awaits his fate, which should result in an indictment. 

Meanwhile, his promotion to the rank of colonel has already been suspended, and if convicted, he would face a trial in the Supreme Military Court. However, he has already received assurances that the STM will not lift a finger against the military personnel being questioned and indicted. The current president of the STM, Francisco Joseli Camelo – about to retire – has already stated that the cases are with the ordinary courts and will remain so. 

Mauro Cid, however, risks being tried by the Superior Military Court (STM) if he receives a sentence greater than two years. In this situation, he would lose his rank and his salary would be received by his wife, Gabriela Cid, as he would be considered a "fictitious dead man." This is a figure, in military rules, that corresponds to "living dead." A subterfuge that guarantees the sustenance of his family. The military understands that the family cannot be punished for the officer's mistakes.

Another loss that Cid will suffer is that of the PRN – he will have to leave the National Residential Building. He will have to move, with his family, from the condominium intended for military officers where he lives and is a neighbor of, for example, General Villas Boas and Mrs. Cida. 

Officers lose this benefit when they are transferred to the reserves. In the case of General Villas Boas, according to the source, "out of humanity – he is very ill – and even out of respect for his leadership role – he was granted the right to remain in the PRN," he reveals. To illustrate the general's importance, he makes a bombshell revelation.

"He is very respected. What is known is that in that episode of the dismissal of the three commanders by Bolsonaro (Armed Forces: Edson Pujol (Army), Ilques Barbosa (Navy) and Antônio Carlos Moretti Bermudez (Air Force)), he even said among friends that if he were in good health he would remove Bolsonaro from office and assume power. And he would be supported if he did so," the source assures.

Currently, Villas Boas is in seclusion. The news about the members of his group is not good from his point of view. In the group that is in command, there is relief, although in academic circles political scientists are already analyzing that the attempt by the High Command to consider as heroes those who parade across the pages and screens of the media is premature: the former commander of the Air Force, Carlos Batista Júnior, and the general and former commander of the Army, Marco Freire Gomes. 

In an interview with the RFI portal, Professor Diogo Cunha, from the Department of Political Science at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), argues for caution. In his opinion, all of this has tarnished the image of the institution and, even if the revelations now given in long hours of testimony are indeed true, there also seems to be an effort to repair the damage and distance the military from Bolsonaro's ideology. 

“In Vilas Boas’ famous tweet, you could see the Armed Forces diving headfirst into partisan politics, apparently with a power project, with their candidate, Jair Bolsonaro. It went wrong, at least his remaining in power for a second term. So now the effort will be to distance themselves from that. And it seems to me that they won’t hesitate to abandon Bolsonaro along the way.” To be confirmed.