The Brazilian government announced Thursday the resignation of Defense Minister Jose Viegas, just two weeks after he was forced to repudiate statements by his own generals defending the repression that took place under the country's 1964-1985 military regime.
"Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday accepted the resignation of the defense minister, which was submitted on Oct. 22," the presidential office reported.
According to the statement, the president - known universally as Lula - assigned Vice President Jose Alencar to take over Viegas' duties and this change will become official on Monday.
Government officials are saying that Alencar will be in command of the armed forces until mid-December, when Lula plans to carry out a Cabinet overhaul in which a new defense minister will be named.
Viegas, a career diplomat who has served at various embassies in Europe and Latin America, has been in the post since Lula took office Jan. 1, 2003.
Despite surviving Lula's first Cabinet reshuffle at the beginning of this year, Viegas was long rumored to be out of favor with the president.
The president received complaints from several military commanders concerning Viegas, whom they characterized as both weak and out of touch with his subordinates.
The situation came to a head on Oct. 19, when Lula personally ordered the army to retract statements made concerning the role of the armed forces during the military dictatorship and the death in custody of journalist Vladimir Herzog at that time.
Reviving a story that dates from 1975, the newspaper Correio Braziliense published photos of Herzog, ostensibly taken during the roughly 24 hours he remained alive in a jail run by army intelligence after being summoned to testify before a military court because of his alleged ties with the Communist Party.
The journalist was arrested and died the next day, his death officially listed as a suicide. The Brazilian army released a photograph showing his body hanged by the neck with a belt used by prisoners, yet the images published Oct. 19 by Correio show Herzog sitting on a bed totally nude, with his head in his hands and visibly humiliated.
The army rushed to respond to the publication of the pictures, issuing a defiant statement proclaiming that the military takeover in 1964 allowed for "the creation of a new Brazil in an atmosphere of peace and security." In addition, the generals said, "the (repressive) measures that were taken were a legitimate response to the violence by those who refused to engage in dialogue, chose radicalism and illegality and took up arms to commit criminal acts." Viegas reacted to the subsequent public outcry about the army's comments by ordering the top brass to issue a second statement, which, in the minister's words, corrected the "errors" and "distortions" of the first.
In the second note, the army expressed sorrow over Herzog's death, reaffirmed its commitment to democracy and the law and acknowledged that in the first statement, "the matter was not dealt with in an appropriate manner." Lula made no public remarks at the time, but did demand explanations from Viegas and army chief Gen. Francisco Roberto Albuquerque, who both claimed that the generals who issued the first statement had not consulted them first.
That explanation caused a stir within Lula's administration, which feared the Brazilian populace would think government officials had no control over the military and democratic principles were being compromised.
Viegas in his letter of resignation took full responsibility for the military's first statement.
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