Bolsonaro Is a Risky Bet for Brazil's Military
More ex-generals in an erratic government could drag down the country’s most trusted institution.
He could put a crimp in their berets.
Photographer: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images
When Jair Bolsonaro left the army under a cloud some 30 years ago, he staked his subsequent political career on his image as a former soldier who promised to restore order to Order and Progress, the slogan that military-minded Positivists emblazoned in 1889 on the national banner. Yet since he has ascended to the presidency, perhaps the most enduring paradox of the new Brazil is how the senior military men Bolsonaro has tapped for his cabinet as symbols of respectability and political tensile strength are now in jeopardy of forfeiting both.
National polls rank the armed forces as Brazil’s most trustworthy institution, trumping the judiciary, the media, private companies and political parties. Their aura only brightened during the recent serial corruption scandals that have sent dozens of crooked executives and politicians to jail. Bolsonaro parlayed the military’s cachet into votes and then recruited its members for his cabinet.