Participating in a open ceremony at the Planalto Palace, referring to his thousand days in office, Bolsonaro claimed that the Armed Forces must be treated with respect and will not comply with any absurd order from him or from any another ruler, without clarifying what is illogical. ‘The Armed Forces are here. They are at my orders. Yes, at my orders. If I give an absurd order, will they act on? No. Neither mine, nor that of any Government. So the Armed Forces have to be treated with respect,’ Bolsonaro said.

Brazil´s Constitution defines the President of the Republic as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, which include the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

He pointed out that the positions the military occupy in the Government are due to their ‘cycle of friendships.’ Bolsonaro, with more than three decades of political career, is a retired Army captain.

Bolsonaro assured in previous stirring speeches that the military decides whether the country lives in a democracy or in a dictatorship. He often uses the ‘My Army’ term in his speeches with a bias of threat to other powers.

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