( Photo by Tiago Corrêa - Dircom / CMM [ Diretoria de Comunicação - Câmara Municipal de Manaus ])
Gen . Eduardo Dias da Costa Villas Bôas , commanding general of the Brazilian Army , meets with fellow officers and civilian staff on 26 March 2014 .
cratic development . Remembered as “ the years of lead ”, the period of the dictatorship was marked by the cancellation of civil rights , control of the press , violent repression of popular demonstrations , torture , and assassinations .
United to Get Out of the Crisis
With respect to current times , Villas Bôas exhorted national unification to confront the crisis . “ We have to recuperate national cohesion , place the interests of the country , the nation , above all these squabbles that dominate the current day to day environment . Concerning 1964 , there were two basic differences , first was the Cold War period , with extreme positions ; and , in 1964 , the country did not count on well established democratic institutions . Today , our country has developed institutions ; institutions with weights and counterweights that remove the necessity of being supervised ”, the commanding general emphasized .
The general also denied rumors that President Dilma Rousseff considered decreeing a state of emergency in the country . “ In Congress , some representatives spoke on this subject . On the president ’ s part , there was no such initiative . It would be a comprehensive measure , but difficult to be implemented . With difficulty , she would be able to implement it , but it would create an extreme situation . It would impede demonstrations and would appoint the Army to be employed in activities where public forces are not able to do security ”, he explained .
In his closing comments , Villas Bôas said that it is necessary to find ways to overcome the country ’ s political crisis . “ We are sure that the society is capable of overcoming this crisis , which is of an economic , political and ethical nature . [ However ] we have seen that all the parameters are fading away and we are losing our ethical and esthetic references , and the discussions we see about finding ways to overcome the crisis worry me . These discussions do not have depth ; they remain in the economic field . It worries me that deeper things — the [ ethics at the ] foundation of our country — are not being considered ”.
During the speech , the commanding general of the Army highlighted the performance of [ Brazilian ] military personnel in areas such as the Amazon and Haiti , in addition to the intellectual involvement of the force in solving questions of national security as well as contributions to the scientific and technological development of strategic projects .
54 July-August 2016
MILITARY REVIEW