People, Homeland and Sovereignty

The coup government signs an international protocol to subject Brazil to external scrutiny of its nuclear facilities, after investing in the dismantling of the nuclear submarine project (Pro-Sub) and sentencing Admiral Othon to 43 years in prison.

The coup plotters are also cutting the annual budget of the Armed Forces by 30%, reducing their personnel by half at the borders, while simultaneously seeking to transform the national defense forces into mere "police" for the urban chaos that they themselves created with their economic policy.

In partnership with Trump, Temer also threatens to involve Brazil and its Armed Forces in the adventure of an "Amazonian war," a new Vietnam, to serve American geopolitical interests and its need to remain in power at any cost.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet, General Sergio Etchegoyen, says that "privatizations do not threaten sovereignty," while newspapers announce that he will meet with leaders of the CIA, the FBI, and other American intelligence agencies.

The situations described make clear the attempt by the interests sponsoring the coup d'état to remove the Armed Forces from their historical commitment to guaranteeing territorial integrity, sovereignty over our resources, and the identity of the country—in short, the National State.

Given this, it is not surprising that sectors of the Armed Forces are reacting with discontent to the country's situation, which is caught between the brazen surrender of the coup plotters and the almost total lack of concern from the opposition regarding issues involving national sovereignty.

In an interview with the newspaper Valor earlier this year, the Army Commander, General Villas Bôas, had already made a forceful diagnosis of the Brazilian reality, saying that "we are a country adrift, that does not know what it intends to be, what it wants to be, and what it should be."

Because, at this moment, that is what is at stake, that is what is necessary: ​​the construction of a project for the country and unity between its civilian and military political forces, with the power to confront the asymmetrical war of destruction imposed on the country by the interests of the international financial system.

In an article published in February of this year, we stated that "no country in the world, and even less so a country with the size and history of Brazil, can survive without a National Project, and subordinated to lesser external and internal interests."

Furthermore, we stated that in the face of current geopolitical disputes, no country could assert itself in the global context "without strong, robust, technologically advanced armed forces capable of commanding respect and asserting national interests."

This is the case in Venezuela, where the Armed Forces defend the country's sovereignty; in Syria, where the Armed Forces confronted the US alliance with Daesh; in Turkey; or anywhere else in the world that seriously resists external attacks against its national interests.

The illusion of subordinating Brazil's economic and geopolitical interests to the United States, on the one hand, abandons the idea of ​​an independent nation and will plunge the country into a future conflict unprecedented in national history, similar to the times of the first Brazilian War.

On the other hand, in the current state of the world, even more so in South America, it is also an illusion to think that global financial imperialism will retreat from its destructive voracity simply in the face of street protests and/or elections, without the presence of a deterrent force, that is, a military force.

Therefore, what Brazil needs in this moment of profound crisis is unity around values ​​that can unify national, popular, democratic, and patriotic interests – both civilian and military – committed to the defense of the Nation and the future of Brazilians.

Otherwise, we will abandon our vocation as a "great power," as defined by General Villas Bôas, to transform ourselves into a North American colony, as General Ernesto Geisel already rejected, with a land without an owner, an enslaved people, and an Armed Forces reduced to overseers.