Check out phrases from generals and other regime leaders and similar statements from the Bolsonaro government.
The press is to blame
"The present situation shows that an efficient control body is indispensable to prevent the spread of false or distorted information made in the name of the mistaken free press"
General Humberto de Souza Mello, commander of the 2nd Army, on 14.Jun.1971
"The Brazilian press, when there is no news, tends to interpret things based on evidence that does not always correspond to reality"
President João Figueiredo, in 1978
"Shut up, let me talk and turn off that drug"
General Newton Cruz to journalist Honório Dantas, from Rádio Planalto, when asked about the lack of democracy, on December 17, 1998
"Shut up; I didn't ask anything. Shut up, shut up"
President Jair Bolsonaro told reporters at the entrance to the Palácio da Alvorada, on May 5, 2020
"Whoever is praised by Folha or Globo loses the ministry"
Jair Bolsonaro during a ministerial meeting on 22.20.2020
I'm the boss
"Whoever wants it not to open, I lock and break it!"
João Figueiredo, in 1979
"I'm in charge, I'll make it very clear. I give freedom to all ministers, but I am in charge"
Jair Bolsonaro, when asked about the changes in command of the Federal Police, on June 16, 2019
"I don't ask [to resign], I send certain things"
Jair Bolsonaro when answering whether he had asked for the dismissal of the director of Inpe, Ricardo Galvão, on August 4, 2019
United Order
"I make no distinction between civilians and the military. The two must be treated equally. The military, for example, must behave by military regulations."
João Figueiredo, in 1978
"Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra received the highest award from the Army, the Peacemaker Medal, he is a Brazilian hero" Jair Bolsonaro, in 2016, on one of the main symbols of repression during the dictatorship
Bunch of communists!
"The State needs to defend itself against extremists who want to destroy it to plant ideas that totalitarianism enshrines."
João Figueiredo, in 1978
"The left is good for two things: organizing street demonstrations and disorganizing the economy"
President Humberto Castello Branco
"We will together sweep away corruption and communism in Brazil"
Jair Bolsonaro, on 14.3.2019
"The black movement, the vagrants of the black movement. That damn scum"
Sérgio Camargo, president of the Palmares Foundation, on April 30, 2020
Dictatorship? What dictatorship?
"I would never be a dictator, not least because in Brazil there is no place for dictatorships"
President Artur da Costa e Silva
"I am a deeply democratic guy"
President Ernesto Geisel
"Why am I arming the people? Because I don't want a dictatorship! (...) It is to open the arms issue here. I want everyone armed! That armed people will never be enslaved"
Jair Bolsonaro, at the ministerial meeting on April 22, 2020
"Where did you see a dictatorship peacefully hand over the government to the opposition? Only in Brazil. So, there was no dictatorship."
Bolsonaro in an interview to Brasil Urgente, from TV Bandeirantes, on March 27, 2019
"For me, I would put these vagabonds in jail, starting at the Supreme Court"
Abraham Weintraub, Minister of Education, at the ministerial meeting on April 22,2020
"The pandemic will pass, but governors and mayors will respond to lawsuits and we will even ask for [their] arrest"
Damares Alves, Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights, at the ministerial meeting on April 22, 2020
People's man
Man of the People
"The economy is doing well, but the people are doing poorly"
President Emílio Garrastazu Médici, in 1970
"Just for breathing, you won't have a job"
Bolsonaro comments with a security guard at the Palácio da Alvorada after a man asked for help on September 27, 2019