The Brazilian military came under fire on Monday. A politician revealed that the military had purchased Viagra pills for the Brazilian troops. Thereby, prompting a barrage of jokes on social media.
Through a freedom of information request, Congressman Elias Vaz learned that President Jair Bolsonaro’s government had approved an order for 35,000 erectile dysfunction medications for the armed forces.
“Our hospitals don’t have enough medication, and Bolsonaro and his crew are using public money to buy ‘the little blue pill,'” said the opposition lawmaker. He also called the purchase “immoral.”
According to the center-left deputy, the records he got do not identify Viagra by name. But they rather state that the order was for sildenafil, the drug’s active ingredient.
The medications were “to treat patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension,” or high blood pressure in the lungs, according to a statement from Brazil’s military ministry. It is another use of sildenafil.
That didn’t stop social media users from chuckling.
On Twitter, where Viagra was one of Brazil’s top trending topics, cartoons depicting tanks with drooping cannon emerged.
“This explains why the military’s support for Bolsonaro just rises and rises,” one person joked. Thus, alluding to the far-right president’s close ties with the military.
“It is a common sign of corruption”
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has surrounded himself with military personnel in his administration. He is openly nostalgic for Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, despite its record of human rights crimes.
The satirical news site Sensacionalista commented, “Some say these pills are to help the armed forces f*** democracy even harder.”
Meanwhile, left-wing Congressmen Marcelo Freixo and Elias Vaz said they will ask authorities to look into if something else about the transaction was inflated: the bill.
They also claimed there was proof the government had been overcharged by up to 143 percent. It is a common sign of corruption.
