The kiss of Judas

In the coming days, Temer is expected to hand over the keys to the Alcântara space base in Maranhão to the sponsors of the coup d'état in the country. The agreement involving the base, they say, has already been settled with the United States, on their terms, consolidating a shameful act of betrayal against national interests. In the 1990s, under Fernando Henrique Cardoso, an agreement blocked in the National Congress went so far as to prevent Brazilians from accessing the base's facilities.

In November, after privatizing the national "outer space" and further compromising national defense, the government will sponsor military exercises with US participation in the Amazon. With explicit interest in this issue, after almost a year ignoring the coup plotters, Trump hosted Temer and the presidents of Colombia and Peru for dinner at the White House. It is no coincidence that the two neighboring countries are participating in joint maneuvers in the Amazon region.

Under the guise of "humanitarian exercises," the US is advancing its plan to establish military bases in the Amazon, just as it has already done in Peru. More than targeting Venezuela and its oil reserves, the action aims to militarily occupy Brazil and South America, compromising the sovereignty of these countries over the region. This measure is compounded by budget cuts that have halved the size of the National Army's presence on the country's borders.

In a recent article, former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim questioned the objective of the military maneuvers and what they will imply in practice. "The presence of extra-regional forces, understood as non-South American, in military exercises has always been viewed with well-founded caution, if not outright distrust, by our Armed Forces," he said. Amorim also recalls that "Brazil, under various governments, has always been very prudent in this regard."

Caution, however, seems to have been abandoned by General Sérgio Etchegoyen, who has surrendered to the outdated thesis of a failed unipolar world under US command. In the seventies, while advocating for open relations with China, then-President General Ernesto Geisel already questioned the idea of ​​unilateral submission to the Americans. In response to hardline military officers, Geisel asked if they intended to turn Brazil into a colony of the United States.

Contrary to coup-mongering ambitions, Brazil needs to assert its sovereignty to fulfill its vocation as a great power, as defined by General Villas Bôas. This cannot be done by compromising national territory, our borders, or handing over public assets, as Pedro Parente advocated, suggesting that the privatization of Petrobras would be a "kiss to the market." Regardless of the wills and particular interests of those in power, Brazilians will rise up in defense of sovereignty, the National State, and the future of the country.