The summary of Mourão's message to Bolsonaro: you're a lieutenant, man.

By Moisés Mendes, for 247

Bolsonaro would have preferred to be a general, much more than president of the Republic. A general has permanence, even after leaving the barracks.

A former lieutenant and mediocre former president, under the tutelage of the military, becomes a useless piece of trash out of power.  

The disconnect between Mourão and Bolsonaro at Saturday's ceremony at the Agulhas Negras Military Academy helps explain this resentment.

The general approaches the lieutenant on the platform during the cadet graduation ceremony, tries to start a conversation, and is ignored.

Bolsonaro glances sideways, turns his face away, and continues on impassively. Mourão reportedly said that the president should go and meet the people who were in the streets.

Some saw Mourão tell Bolsonaro, as if ordering a subordinate: "Spill the beans, man."

What game? What doesn't need translation is that Mourão is approaching a weakened figure. The other was coming out of almost a month of seclusion. A defeated man consumed by defeat.

Mourão gradually approaches, imposing his physical presence as a general and, even unintentionally, ends up humiliating the lieutenant at a public event, in front of other military personnel, in a scene seen in a live broadcast.

The two have structural disagreements, now accentuated by the real possibility of Mourão appropriating part of Bolsonaro's legacy on the far right.

The lieutenant appears to have snubbed the vice president by ignoring him, but the lasting impression is quite different. Mourão was there to guide him and tell him what he should do.

The general now has the votes. He will have an eight-year term as senator for Rio Grande do Sul.

This is Bolsonaro's resentment. Mourão got where he is as a politician because he was carried on the shoulders of Bolsonarism. But he's a general.

Without Bolsonaro, it's certain that Mourão, Damares, Tarcísio de Freitas, Eduardo Pazuello, Bolsonaro's sons, and at least half of the far-right in Congress would be nothing.

But they have voters, and some will hold office for the first time. They will have immunity and form their factions in Congress. And Bolsonaro will have nothing left.

When Bolsonaro glances sideways at Mourão, he may be thinking that, if he were a general, he could have carried out the coup.

That's what undermines his self-esteem. He was a mediocre, undisciplined, and threatening lieutenant, sent home as a captain so as not to bother the dictatorship's leaders.

In power, he was tutored and protected by the generals. Without Mourão, Heleno, Braga Netto, and Luiz Eduardo Ramos, Bolsonaro would not have become who he is. But without Bolsonaro, they would not have secured 6 jobs for their colleagues.

More than two dozen generals, admirals, and brigadiers were dismissed from the government by Bolsonaro, many at the behest of his sons.

The following individuals were expelled: Rêgo Barros, Luiz Carlos Pereira Gomes, Guilherme Theophilo, Décio Brasil, Ilídio Gaspar Filho, Lauro Luís Pires, Maynard Marques de Santa Rosa, Jamil Megid Júnior, João Carlos Corrêa, Santos Cruz, Floriano Peixoto, Severo Ramos, Juarez Cunha, Franklimberg Freitas, Francisco Mamede, Marco Aurélio Vieira, Joaquim Silva e Luna, Edson Pujol, Fernando Azevedo e Silva, Eduardo Camerini, Celestino Todesco, Antonio Franciscangelis Neto, Ricardo Machado Vieira, Antônio Carlos Moretti Bermudez, and Alexandre Araújo Mota.

Today, Bolsonaro isn't entirely sure what half of the dismissed generals were doing in the government. But he would have liked to have reached the same level of military success they did.

The gist of what Bolsonaro heard Mourão say was something like this: I'm a general and you're a lieutenant, man.

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