MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro praises 1964 coup yet again

“Calm the fuck down, shit!” Bolsonaro said.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro Thursday said his country would be a precarious republic had it not been for the military coup d'etat staged in 1964.

The retired Army captain made those remarks on the 58th anniversary of the uprising which remained in power for 21 years and once again underlined his doubts about the transparency of the national electoral system under which he will seek another four years in office on October 2.

“What would Brazil be without the works of the military government? It would be nothing, we would be a republiqueta”, Bolsonaro said during a speech at the Planalto Palace as he took the oath of office from seven new ministers following a resignation en masse of those officials who intend to run for electoral posts this year.

Bolsonaro insisted that the process of overthrowing constitutional president Joao Goulart, whose office was declared vacant following a military uprising in Minas Gerais, was not a coup.

Also present at the Planalto ceremony was Deputy Daniel Silveira, who gained notoriety for breaking a sign at a rally with the name of Marielle Franco, the councilwoman murdered in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. Silveira is also being prosecuted for attacking democracy by Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre De Moraes.

”Everyone had (in the dictatorship), the right to circulate, to come and go, to leave the country,“ said Bolsonaro, who also admitted his advisors had told him to calm down: ”Calm the fuck down, shit!“ Bolsonaro said.

Bolsonaro was also critical of the numerous judicial cases against his allies. ”We cannot accept what has been happening passively. People who can be imprisoned, goods confiscated, salary withheld. You are going to get to them. Today we have a president who fights for transparency in elections. They forbade to doubt the electronic ballot box. We have the obligation to have the certainty of the vote, which is the soul of democracy. If I do not decide, everyone will suffer with it,” he stressed.

Regarding the 1964 coup, Bolsonaro vindicated dictators Castelo Branco, Emilio Garrastazú Médici, and Ernesto Geisel for having developed infrastructure and agriculture in the center of the country and also in the Amazon rainforest.

Bolsonaro also linked Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva's Workers' Party (PT) to an alleged intention to tolerate pedophilia and dictate sex education in kindergarten.