Editorial: In a new book, Fernando Henrique reveals details of the "panties crisis".

A collection of books entitled "Diaries of the Presidency" was published in the bookstores, where the most important experiences of his two mandates, presided over by the Federative Republic of Brazil, are reported as the title suggests. It is a bundle of thousands of pages written, I believe, without that literary zeal or anything that counts. These are just reports, some of which are perfectly dispensable, like the one that deals with the affair between former president Itamar Franco and model Lilian Ramos, who starred in that scandal of being photographed, without panties, alongside the former president, after Parade in the Sambódromo. Judging from the diaries of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso - and at least in this respect he seems to be telling the truth - the military, by very little, did not slaughter the miner Itamar Franco.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso would have been probed on the possibility of continuing as Finance Minister, in the event of a move away from Itamar Franco. At the time, he said there would not be such a chance. The poll would have been made by General Romildo Canhim. In theory, the blows of the 21st century - like the last war against President Dilma Rousseff - do not need the overt support of the military. They are orchestrated through institutions, hence also called an institutional coup. But FHC's remark on the subject is striking. There is here in Pernambuco a political scientist who devoted himself to the study of military coups. He reported it in class that FHC once addressed in an interview on this subject and FHC reportedly said that he was seeing a horn on a horse's head, alluding to the impossibility of the Brazilian military regaining power through arms. This revelation of FHC is unmistakable evidence that sabers rumors were not so far from the federal capital. With the retreat of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the palliative solution to calm the barracks would have been the scalp of the then minister of justice, Mauricio Correia - who exaggerated the doses during that same event - yet through an honorable exit. Realizing the size of the trouble, Itamar Franco did not even think twice.

The military has some curious "criteria". FHC, of ​​course, as Minister of Finance, was a strategic name of the Itamar Government, because of the Real Plan. It happens, however, that, one by one, the names of the line of succession did not please the military for several reasons. Inocêncio Oliveira directed the Chamber of Deputies, Humberto Lucena the Federal Senate. One of them, even, was pointed out as loose, without a pulse. A weak team, which did not raise the expectations of the military. This reminded us of an interesting episode here in Recife. Today it is not so unusual to find intellectuals lining up on the right. Estadão, in its edition of today, brings an infographic about the performance of the right in the social networks and in the blogosphere, where the space occupied by these philosophers is widely highlighted. There are the Villas, the Condés, the Oaks. As the right wing is on the rise all over the world, the possible patrolling of the left to these intellectuals seems not to be a major problem today. In the 1960s, however, things did not work out that way. To assume such positions implied in banishment of the academy, stigma, public execrations and the like. If the individual did not have a good crumb could even end up in a deep crisis of heavy conscience.

The case here of Recife refers to the sociologist Gilberto Freyre, author of the classic Casa Grande & Senzala. It was always speculated on the real motivations of Gilberto Freyre to support the military dictatorship established in the country with the 1964 civil-military coup. In this regard, we find a variety of reasons, including one of a theoretical nature, but this would give a great debate , Which we left for another opportunity. It is important to emphasize at this point that the Sociologist of Apipucos was not only a sympathizer of the military regime, but a kind of organic intellectual, to use the Gramscian concept. The other day I had the opportunity to handle a pamphlet written by him, at the request of Marco Maciel, on agrarian reform, which met a demand from the military. Among the possible motivations of Gilberto Freyre, the most "pragmatic" was the desire to be appointed governor of the state of Pernambuco, which did not happen. Prestigious, he was invited to take the education portfolio, but refused. According to him, the military considered him very "vain".