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Bolsonaro shares video endorsing military use against governors

bolsonaro military

On his Twitter feed, President Jair Bolsonaro shared a video in which a woman outside of the presidential palace asks him to bring the country’s businesses back to normal — even if it takes “putting the military on the streets” against state governors. We translated parts of the woman’s three-minute statement:

“Mr. President, I come here [to the presidential palace] almost every day. I ask you as a mother, I need to go back to work. We can’t live in this situation — my kids and my household will go without. I’m here to ask you: put the military on the streets, as this governor has once again suspended classes for a month. I’m asking not for me, but for thousands, millions of people who need work. I don’t want money from the government, I want work. [Government money] is for bums. […] People want freedom. These governors have their money, and we don’t have anything.”

Before the video is cut, Mr. Bolsonaro answers: “You can be sure that you speak for millions of people.”

On Twitter, the president wrote “PLEASE SHARE,” to which São Paulo state lawmaker Janaína Paschoal replied: “If you don’t stop with such posts, the military will go to the streets to remove you, based on article 142 of the Constitution. My people are hurting and you are making fun. For the love of God, grow up!”

Ms. Paschoal is a politician unsuspicious of being left-leaning. She authored the impeachment request against former President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party in 2015, and was coveted for the VP position on Mr. Bolsonaro’s presidential ticket.