The right-wing populist has publicly questioned the validity of Brazil’s electoral system. Some opinion polls put him almost 20 percentage points below former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party.
“Credible deterrence requires military and security forces that are prepared, capable and under firm civilian control,” Austin said in the capital, Brasilia, adding: “The more we deepen our democracies, the more we deepen our security.”
Austin, a retired US Army general, will hold bilateral talks today with the Brazilian delegations.
“To the headquarters as a whole, it’s going to carry a very strong and clear message about the need for the military to respect democracies,” said a senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. However, the official refused to “prejudge” what Austin might say to his Brazilian peers.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, told diplomats this month that the Brazilian military should be called in to help ensure transparency in the election. The president has pressured electoral authorities to accept a parallel vote count by the armed forces, which has ruled it out. The maneuvers have unsettled Brazil watchers in Washington, including in Congress.
“(Austin) should simply make it clear that the military must stay out of the election and allow any dispute over the election to be resolved by constitutional means,” US Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat and member of the Home Affairs Committee, told Reuters. Exterior of the House of Representatives.
“And you should remind your peers that US law restricts our cooperation with foreign militaries who are involved in anything that might resemble a coup.”
Military leaders have repeatedly said that Brazil’s armed forces will respect any election results.
However, some military officials have made headlines because they have echoed Bolsonaro’s comments about possible weaknesses in Brazil’s voting system.
Bolsonaro has based a large part of his political career on nostalgia for the Brazilian military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, on contempt for Congress and the courts, and he also populated his government with officers and retired members of the armed forces.
Thomas Shannon, a former US ambassador to Brazil, said Brazilians were looking for signs of how their military might act if Bolsonaro refuses to accept defeat at the polls.
“Secretary Austin is walking into a political storm in which Brazilians are trying to gauge the level of institutional support for a possible attempt to undo the election results,” Shannon said.
Former US officials, including Shannon, have warned that Brazil does not respond well to threats, and that any message needs to focus on the US-Brazil partnership “instead of saying, ‘Don’t do this and don’t do that.'”
“But it has to be a message that makes it clear that the military partnership between the United States and Brazil depends on a common commitment to democratic values and practice,” Shannon said.
The US State Department recently affirmed its confidence in Brazil’s electoral system, a rare step during a fierce and confrontational campaign.
Nicholas Zimmerman, a former high-ranking White House official, said “the risk of elements of the military accompanying anti-democratic efforts must be taken seriously.”
Facing a rise in political tension, the head of the country’s Electoral Court, Edson Fachin, warned in early July that Brazil risks facing an even more serious incident than the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. from the United States.
Source: Ambito
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