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Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has fired the army chief
Photo: ADRIANO MACHADO / REUTERS
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has fired the head of the Brazilian army, General Julio Cesar de Arruda.
His release comes two weeks after the unrest in the government district in Brasília and after several police chiefs had to resign.
The official website of the Brazilian armed forces said that General Arruda had been dismissed as army chief.
His successor will be General Tomas Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, previously army commander in the south-east of the country.
Lula recently said the intelligence services in Brazil failed on January 8 when supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in Brasília.
Earlier, Lula had said he suspected collusion by "people within the armed forces" in the riot;
more than 4,000 Bolsonaro supporters had entered the congress building, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court and rioted there.
More than a thousand people were arrested on the day of the riots, which bore strong similarities to the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol.
At that time, a violent right-wing mob did not accept the election defeat of then US President Donald Trump and wanted to prevent the confirmation of the election results.
jso/Reuters/AP