Vanity and Disdain for Politics Led General Heleno from the Presidential Palace to Prison

General Augusto Heleno had disdain for the political career he chose to pursue. He always believed that the uniform he wore until 2011, when he retired, made him technically more competent and morally superior to the men in suits he began dealing with during the 2018 presidential campaign. It was this belief in the technical and moral superiority of the military that first led him to politics and then to a role in the coup plot that ended with his 21-year prison sentence. Heleno and other high-ranking military officials involved in the coup plot shared the notion that politics is inherently dirty and driven by petty interests, while the military possess special qualities that enable them to take institutional shortcuts to restore what they consider the true national interest. This shared belief that the events of 1964 were not a coup, the subsequent 21 years until 1985 did not constitute a dictatorship, and therefore, the events of January 8th did not represent any break in democratic order.