BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) 鈥 President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired Brazil鈥檚 army chief Saturday just days after the leftist leader openly said that some military members allowed the Jan. 8 uprising in the capital by far-right protesters.
The official website of the Brazilian armed forces said Gen. Julio Cesar de Arruda had been removed as head of the army. He was replaced by Gen. Tom谩s Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, who was head of the Southeast Military Command.
Lula, who did not comment publicly on the firing, met with Defense Minister Jose Mucio, chief of staff Rui Costa and the new army commander in Brasilia at the end of the day. Speaking to journalists afterward, Mucio said the Jan. 8 riots had caused 鈥渁 fracture in the level of trust鈥 in the army's top levels and the government decided a change was needed.
In recent weeks, Lula targeted the military with criticism after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro in an attempt to keep Bolsonaro in office.
The uprising between the left and the right.
Lula said several times in public that there were definitely people in the army who allowed the rioting to occur, though he never cited Arruda.
During a breakfast with the press, Lula said earlier this week that 鈥渁 lot of people from the military police and the armed forces were complicit鈥 and had allowed protesters to enter the buildings with open doors. In another interview, the president said that 鈥渁ll the military involved in the coup attempt will be punished, no matter the rank.鈥
The comments were followed by Lula scheduling several meetings with the defense minister and the armed forces鈥 commanders. Mucio denied they had mentioned the Jan. 8 rioting, but he said relations between the military and the government needed adjustment.
On the eve of Arruda鈥檚 firing, a video of a Paiva speech earlier in the week was released in which he said the election results should be respected in order to guarantee democracy.
Rioters who stormed through the Brazilian Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in Brasilia in the presidential election.
In a video posted on social media from inside the presidential palace on the day of the attack, a colonel is seen trying to stop police from arresting Bolsonaro鈥檚 supporters who had invaded the building. He asks for patience from the military police, which report to the federal district's government.
More than a , which bore strong similarities to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Congress by mobs who wanted to overturn former President Donald Trump鈥檚 election loss.
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice earlier this month into who incited the rioting in Brasilia as part of a broader crackdown to hold responsible parties to account.
According to the text of his ruling, Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted the request from the prosecutor-general鈥檚 office, which cited a video that Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the riot. The video claimed Lula wasn鈥檛 voted into office, but rather was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil鈥檚 electoral authority.
Lula has been trying to reduce the high number of military officers in the government administration left by Bolsonaro. At least 140 military officers have been dismissed since Lula took office Jan. 1.
