Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s ultra-conservative project for Brazil foresees a country where men are men — in the antiquated, gun-toting, chauvinistic meaning of the word. Among the central tenets of this credo is the military, an institution that for many Bolsonaro supporters represents power, masculinity, bravery, and virility.
While there is certainly a great deal of power within Brazil’s military, recent reports show that virility may be in short supply among the men in fatigues.
Muck-raking by opposition lawmaker Elias Vaz — a specialist in gathering info on public expenditure — found that the three branches of Brazil’s Armed Forces purchased over 3,500 pills of Viagra in eight public procurement processes in 2020 and 2021.
The military were quick to dismiss the story, claiming that the erectile dysfunction medicine can also be used off-label to treat pulmonary hypertension. Vice President Hamilton Mourão, however, a military general himself, soon gave the game away.
“Am I not allowed to use my Viagra?” he asked, during an interview to finance newspaper Valor. “What’s 35,000 pills of Viagra for 110,000 old guys? It’s nothing!”
The press hubbub has only gotten bigger since, after it was revealed that not only did the military purchase impotence pills, but that it had also spent BRL 3.5 million (USD 740,000) on penile implants — the intended use of which we can leave up to the reader’s imagination.
Amid times of financial hardship around the country, the spending habits of the government and Armed Forces often make the news, highlighting the privileges enjoyed by certain segments of society, while millions of Brazilians go hungry.
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