Carluxo lies down, rolls around, and makes Mourão the scapegoat of the government.

By Gilvandro Filho, for the Journalists for Democracy 

There is no record, in the history of the Republic and of Brazilian governments, democratic or not, of a case similar to this declared war between the sons of President Jair Bolsonaro and Vice President Hamilton Mourão, chosen by the "boys" – and by the allies of the three – to be the scapegoat in the first days of the Bolsonaro era.

Elected on the same ticket as the president, Mourão is now practically persona non grata at the Palácio da Alvorada, where the "first family" resides. This "ill will" is of a similar scale to the antipathy with which the "Bolsonaro supporters" are viewed among the military who make up a significant portion of the government itself.

Currently, the parties involved in the dispute are at the peak of a vendetta whose outcome is uncertain. This is because, if it depends on the president, absolutely nothing will be done to curb the lack of manners and civility of his sons. Bolsonaro has already given ample proof that his sons can do anything in his government and nobody has any right to interfere.

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The captain-president's sons meddle in foreign policy, stick their noses into security, not to mention the external problems they always try to fix. The all-powerful Fabrício Queiroz, whose case was closed this Wednesday (24) by the STF, is living and forgotten proof that those who can command, those who have sense obey, and those who have a patron benefit.

The middle son, a city councilman in Rio de Janeiro and the official digital influencer of the Planalto Palace, Carlos Bolsonaro is the center forward and top scorer of the anti-Mourão team. He is also the most influential among Bolsonaro's sons, responsible for actions ranging from accompanying his father, the president, during his stay at the Albert Einstein Hospital – in the days following the "attack" he suffered with a knife in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais – to the bizarre and relaxed ride in the presidential car, sitting in the backrest with his feet on the seat, during the inauguration ceremony.

Carluxo, a nickname by which he is also known, is responsible, according to Bolsonaro himself, for his election. It's an exercise in imagination to try and figure out what he (the son) did to be treated with such reverence by the president, after a campaign filled with fake news and dubious and mysterious maneuvers, precisely on social media, a battleground where the "boy" excels. But the creature certainly has prestige. This week, he even managed to get his best friend, his cousin Léo Índio, a well-paid parliamentary advisor position in the office of a senator from the DEM party.

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Another display of Carlos's power occurred today, when news circulated that he simply blocked the president's access to his own Twitter account. According to Época magazine, the son hid his father's password in retaliation for a complaint he heard precisely about the abuses committed against the vice-president.

Attitudes like this demonstrate that the president has absolutely no control over his three sons. Particularly regarding the second son, who hasn't stopped posting insults, even in the face of the almost chain reaction adopted by civilians and military personnel supporting Bolsonaro – from uniformed ministers to parliamentarians who, this week, began to take to the podium to complain about the harangue.

From Virginia, in the United States, Carluxo's guru – the "philosopher," writer, and former amateur astrologer Olavo de Carvalho – laughs at everything and everyone. Olavo is influential, he places ministers in positions of power, and his preferred targets are the military and Mourão. He is the fuel that keeps the gossip machine grinding as it is, since the president can't stop it. Or doesn't want to.