Mattis Delivered A Warning About Politicizing The Military Amid Brazil's Election Turmoil
By CHRISTOPHER WOODY, BUSINESS INSIDER on August 15, 2018
On the first stop on a four-country Latin American tour, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis this week argued for closer defense ties between the U.S. and Brazil, the region’s biggest economy.
. . .
Mattis’ comments are likely to resonate more sharply in Brazil, which will vote for a new president in October.
There are a number of candidates, but one of the frontrunners, Jair Bolsonaro — a former army captain who has compared himself to President Donald Trump — has spoken approvingly of the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985 and promised a more prominent role for the military in his government.
. . .
But his elevation of the military worries many in a country where memories of the dictatorship’s abuses endure. The current widespread use of the military for domestic security has already led to abuses.
More:
https://taskandpurpose.com/mattis-civil-military-divide-brazil/
One of Brazil's principle torture devices, used frequently by the last
Brazilian military dictatorship, a torture made traditional when torturing
slaves in Brazil in the 1800's, the "Parrot's Perch," or "Pau de Arara."
This monument depicts the "pau de arrara," the infamous "parrot's perch" torture rack, widely used in Brazil during the Military dictatorial regime in the late 60's & 70's. They conducted tortures so brutal that most victims died or were permanently impaired. The dictatorship institutionalized the torture apparatus by creating a nationwide network of information and training -- in some cases with active consultation with the U.S. FBI and other military and police agencies. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supplied field radios that were used to administer electric shocks.
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Dilma Rousseff taunt opens old wounds of dictatorship era's torture in Brazil
Jonathan Watts in Brasília
Tue 19 Apr 2016 14.56 EDT
. . .
The old wounds and new divisions opened up by Brazil’s impeachment vote were evident on Tuesday when Dilma Rousseff said it was “lamentable” that one of her accusers had glorified the torture used against her and others during the dictatorship era.
The president was referring to Jair Bolsonaro, a rightwing lower house deputy, who dedicated his vote in favour of impeachment to Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ultra, the colonel who headed the feared Doi-Codi torture unit in the 1970s.
Rousseff, a former guerrilla, was imprisoned at the time and tortured. She rarely goes into details, but once described how she was beaten, given electric shocks and left naked on the floor. Other women political prisoners from that time have said they were raped.
Bolsonaro – who is planning to run for president in the next election – used his brief statement at the microphone during Sunday’s vote to laud the military leaders who beat and tormented leftwing leaders after the 1964 coup.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/19/dilma-rousseff-impeachment-comments-torture-era-brazil-history
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142134291
Clearly the same right-wing Brazilian cabal intends to re-instate the same dictatorship, simply electing them this time.
