After achieving conciliation between the top brass and the president () in the first year of government, the Minister of Defense, , 76, defined as .
Without achieving major progress in Congress, it accumulated defeats with consecutive budget freezes and the inclusion of the Forces in the spending cut package proposed by the Minister (Finance). Now, he can leave the portfolio, at his own request, with military personnel dissatisfied with the tightness of their accounts.
Allies of the Minister of Defense cite, with reservation, a moment that marked Mucio in what may have been his last full year in the Lula government.
He received greetings from businesspeople on October 8, at an event held by the (National Confederation of Industry), when his speech was praised by one of the country’s main representatives.
In the still full hall, Mucio replied that he had been rehearsing the sermon for weeks, aware of the wordiness.
“The diplomatic issue interferes with Defense. There was now a competition, a bidding process. The Jews, the people of Israel won, but for reasons of war, Hamas, political groups, we have this bidding ready, but for ideological reasons we do not we can approve”, .
The minister was referring to Lula’s request for the purchase of 36 howitzers, weapons similar to long-range, precision cannons used by artillery.
The election involved friction with sectors of the government and the PT — groups that In the case of the Israeli howitzers, the public dispute ended up revealing contradictions between Mucio and the Presidency’s advisor for international affairs, Celso Amorim.
The Minister of Defense, however, does not hide that he likes to be seen as the military’s representative in the government. He says that criticism increases his credibility with the Forces.
With the 2024 mission, Mucio went to the Chamber of Deputies, in April, to ask congressmen to approve one (Gross Domestic Product) as the Defense budget.
“We don’t need 2% like the NATO countries [Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte]. Colombia, a small country, has 3.6% of GDP. Our neighbors have a bigger budget than Brazil. But given our priorities, we are not investing in defense, which is the guardian of our territory, our sovereignty”, said the minister alongside the commanders of the Armed Forces, who entered the first year of Lula’s administration with funds equivalent to little above 1% of GDP.
The Ministry of Defense’s budget for 2024 is R$128.1 billion, according to the federal government’s Transparency Portal. This is a nominal increase of 4.5% compared to 2022, the last year of the Bolsonaro administration, and 2.8% compared to a year before.
Discussions about the end of some benefits of weapons careers, such as setting a minimum age for retirement, were the main headache for Mucio this year.
According to reports made to SheetHaddad called for the inclusion of the military in the spending cut package also as a symbol. The promise was that other public service careers would be the next to enter the cost containment plan — which did not happen.
Haddad defended that the minimum retirement age for military personnel, set at 55 years old, came into force within a period of up to two years. Military chiefs called for a ten-year transition rule.
Without an agreement between the parties, the commanders of the Navy, Army and Air Force were taken by Mucio to President Lula for a meeting at the Palácio da Alvorada, at the end of November.
The military leaders delivered a letter to Lula in which they explained their reasons for extending the transition to the new rules. The president was willing to comply with the ten-year deadline, according to a person who participated in the meeting.
The institutional video produced by the Navy that refuted the accusations of military privileges, released the day after the meeting with Lula, caused the entire articulation to collapse. Mucio told Lula to send the bill as it was already written because he did not want to discuss the matter any further.
The Navy commander, Admiral Marcos Sampaio Olsen, had the . Mucio’s conclusion was that the wear and tear of the eventual dismissal would be greater than overcoming the crisis.
Mucio is one of Lula’s closest ministers. Despite the setbacks, he maintains the president’s trust. The exhausting routine and the eternal conflict between the Forces and the government made the .
He accepted the invitation to lead the department, still in the government transition, with the condition that he would not remain in the position throughout Lula’s third term. The wear and tear has accumulated in recent months, with the unfolding of investigations into military personnel involved in the 2022 coup plot, at the end of the government ().
As one of his final acts, Mucio wants to convene the press for a press conference in mid-January. The idea is to show all the actions carried out by the Armed Forces in 2024.
The minister’s assistants have already gathered the numbers of military operations for the year and sent them to Mucio’s office. There were 62,200 military personnel employed in actions, more than 10 thousand flight hours, 2,663 Brazilians repatriated in Lebanon and 71 thousand rescues in the floods of Rio Grande do Sul.
He also wants to highlight the progress made towards creating a civilian career in the Ministry of Defense.
First, however, Mucio intends to take two weeks off after Christmas to talk to family and friends. According to interlocutors, it is time to settle your thoughts about the future.
