Brazil’s Navy Gets Ready to Defend the Amazon Against Any Aggression

The currents and high flood levels in the rivers of the Amazon, not to mention the type and the lay of the river banks, the presence of natural floating or underwater barriers, poisonous animals, and tropical diseases, are some of the aspects that the Brazilian Navy takes into account to operate in that region.

“All of this can restrict mobility for our naval forces in river channels, as well as requiring additional planning measures, vaccinations, and first-aid training,” stated Lieutenant Colonel Robson Clair da Silva, the commander of the 2nd Riverine Operations Battalion, a unit under the 4th Naval District Command.

To keep its troops ready to operate in this environment, the 4th and 9th Naval District Commands conduct Operation Ribeirex annually. Together, both units cover nearly all of the states in northern Brazil, with the exception of Tocantins, and two states in the northeast (Maranhão and Piauí).

In 2017, the operation took place in locations close to the city of Santarém in the state of Pará, with 2,250 service members from the two commands participating, 200 of whom were marines from the 2nd Riverine Operations Battalion located in Belém, state of Pará.

In the first phase of the exercise, carried out from April 25th to 27th, the goal was to deploy the marines, who departed Belém for Santarém, in addition to the deployment of eight ships also participating in the training.

While in transit to the area of operations, the crew performed onboard activities such as firefighting, overseeing ship repairs, and navigational studies.

“The navigational training is aimed at familiarizing the officers with the navigational peculiarities of the rivers in the Amazon, which are powerful and have banks that shift quite frequently,” explained Captain Ricardo Jaques Ferreira, the commander of the Northern Naval Patrol Group, a unit under the 4th Naval District Command.

During this period, some exercises were still being conducted, including the launch of support vessels that would be used in the second phase of Ribeirex.

“The goal of the entire first phase was to elevate the level of vessel training to operate in working groups, in order to increase their efficiency during the second phase of the operation, when the riverine operation was carried out,” Capt. Ferreira said.

River Landing

The second phase of the operation, which ran from April 28th to May 1st, had two focuses: an exercise in river landings and the control of traffic on the Amazon River.

Upon landing, the marine troops left the ships to advance towards an area on the river bank, aiming to secure that space and to maintain certain objectives for each participating group.

“This activity requires a high degree of coordination, control, and speed in order to execute it safely and effectively,” Lt. Col. Clair explained.

During the exercise, the service members also faced the challenge of simulating a so-called “casualty evacuation,” having to be aware of first-aid procedures and having to take each participant who had been “hit” to the best-equipped healthcare facilities.

The point chosen for the riverine operation was the area where the river enters the Great Lake of Curuai, a lake with muddy waters like those of the Amazon River, to which it is connected, north of Santarém.

“This area of operations was chosen because of the natural features of the region, considering the high flood level of the Amazon River,” Capt. Ferreira said.

In addition to the ships, an Esquilo (UH-12) helicopter from the Navy’s 3rd Helicopter Squadron was employed to support the operation. “The union between the troops and the resources of both commands led to increased interoperability and to a mutual understanding of their capacities and limitations in operations,” Capt. Ferreira assessed.

Lt. Col. Clair also considered the results of the 2017 edition of Operation Ribeirex to be positive. “I consider the operation to have been successful since it was possible to keep the Navy’s troop training in the Amazon region at a high level of readiness without any incident that would have compromised the safety of the personnel or equipment.” He added that “it was also important to have the marines experience the characteristics of our Amazon.”

Controlling river traffic is the responsibility of the Navy, charged with promoting the safety of navigation, preventing water pollution, and protecting those who use the waters in their daily lives; operations that become more complex due to the features of the Amazon.

The length of the Amazon River is one of the factors, according to Capt. Ferreira. He also commented on the existence of holes and lakes in the region, a fact that requires service members to diversify the ways in which they control river traffic, trying out new operational strategies and expanding the presence and capacity of the Navy.

In general, operations like Ribeirex are guided by a constitutional decision. “The Armed Forces, in accordance with Article 142 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, is dedicated to the defense of the homeland, to preserving constitutional powers and, by the initiative of any of those powers, maintaining law and order,” Lt. Col. Clair affirmed.

“For the defense of the homeland, the Armed Forces need to be well trained and to have credibility in putting their training to use, being able to operate rapidly and successfully against acts of aggression.

“As such, it is only with ongoing training, which is achieved through in-service training and in operations such as Ribeirex, that it is possible to carry out our constitutional role and dissuade a domestic or external threat,” Lt. Col. Clair concluded.

This article appeared originally in Diálogo – https://dialogo-americas.com/en/home

Tags:

You May Also Like

Let’s stop aping the US

It’s time to shop around and stop following blindly the Americans. In some ways ...

In Brazil, Favela-based Community News Outlets Are Blossoming

Unhappy with the portrayal of her community in the mainstream press, single mother Carla ...

The Brazilian Army is replacing its M109A3 armored fleet with M109A5 models. Photo: Brazilian Army

A Gift from the US to the Brazilian Army: Armored Vehicles

Thanks to a 2012 contract between the US government and the Brazilian Army, Brazil’s ...

Indigenous Leader Sonia Guajajara of the Guajajara tribe. Reuters

Anti-vaxxers Kill Brazil Indian Leader After She Gets Covid Vaccine. It Was Fake News

Hours after Sonia Guajajara became one of Brazil’s first indigenous women to get a ...

Michel Temer and Eduardo Cunha

Taped Talk Shows Brazil President Approving Hush Money. Opposition Wants Impeachment

On March 7, at around 10:30 p.m., businessman Joesley Batista entered the Brazilian presidential ...

Protest against Temer in Curitiba, Paraná state - Lula Marques/Ag PT

If Brazil President Manages to Remain in Office He’ll Be Too Crippled to Govern

Demonstrators marched across Brazil on Sunday calling for the resignation or ouster of President ...

A Lula portrait

Brazil’s Court Decides This Month If Lula Goes to Jail or Gets a Chance to Become President

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will learn later this month of ...

Lula wearing a typical hat from Brazil's Northeast - Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/Instituto Lula

If He Doesn’t Go to Jail and People Don’t Change Their Mind, Lula Will Be Brazil’s Next President

Despite being sentenced to nine years and six months over alleged corruption charges in ...

Lula being embraced just before going to jail - Photo: Ricardo Stuckert

Lula, Brazil’s Top Polling Presidential Hopeful Launches Candidacy from Jail

Electoral authorities have to determine if the embattled ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s ...

It seems the future never arrives in Brazil What Lies Ahead in Brazil? Brazil Has No Exemplary Past or Present. But What Lies Ahead for the Country? Europeans, US, developed country, developing country. Bolsonaro, future B. Michael Rubin For years, experts have debated what separates a developing country from a developed one. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of a country is one simple way to measure its economic development. Another way to measure a country's progress is the extent of public education, e.g. how many citizens complete high school. A country's health may be measured by the effectiveness of its healthcare system, for example, life expectancy and infant mortality. With these measurement tools, it's easier to gauge the difference between a country like Brazil and one like the U.S. What's not easy to gauge is how these two countries developed so differently when they were both "discovered" at the same time. In 1492 and 1500 respectively, the U.S. and Brazil fell under the spell of white Europeans for the first time. While the British and Portuguese had the same modus operandi, namely, to exploit their discoveries for whatever they had to offer, not to mention extinguishing the native Americans already living there if they got in the way, the end result turned out significantly different in the U.S. than in Brazil. There are several theories on how/why the U.S. developed at a faster pace than Brazil. The theories originate via contrasting perspectives – from psychology to economics to geography. One of the most popular theories suggests the divergence between the two countries is linked to politics, i.e. the U.S. established a democratic government in 1776, while Brazil's democracy it could be said began only in earnest in the 1980s. This theory states that the Portuguese monarchy, as well as the 19th and 20th century oligarchies that followed it, had no motivation to invest in industrial development or education of the masses. Rather, Brazil was prized for its cheap and plentiful labor to mine the rich soil of its vast land. There is another theory based on collective psychology that says the first U.S. colonizers from England were workaholic Puritans, who avoided dancing and music in place of work and religious devotion. They labored six days a week then spent all of Sunday in church. Meanwhile, the white settlers in Brazil were unambitious criminals who had been freed from prison in Portugal in exchange for settling in Brazil. The Marxist interpretation of why Brazil lags behind the U.S. was best summarized by Eduardo Galeano, the Uruguayan writer, in 1970. Galeano said five hundred years ago the U.S. had the good fortune of bad fortune. What he meant was the natural riches of Brazil – gold, silver, and diamonds – made it ripe for exploitation by western Europe. Whereas in the U.S., lacking such riches, the thirteen colonies were economically insignificant to the British. Instead, U.S. industrialization had official encouragement from England, resulting in early diversification of its exports and rapid development of manufacturing. II Leaving this debate to the historians, let us turn our focus to the future. According to global projections by several economic strategists, what lies ahead for Brazil, the U.S., and the rest of the world is startling. Projections forecast that based on GDP growth, in 2050 the world's largest economy will be China, not the U.S. In third place will be India, and in fourth – Brazil. With the ascendency of three-fourths of the BRIC countries over the next decades, it will be important to reevaluate the terms developed and developing. In thirty years, it may no longer be necessary to accept the label characterized by Nelson Rodrigues's famous phrase "complexo de vira-lata," for Brazil's national inferiority complex. For Brazilians, this future scenario presents glistening hope. A country with stronger economic power would mean the government has greater wealth to expend on infrastructure, crime control, education, healthcare, etc. What many Brazilians are not cognizant of are the pitfalls of economic prosperity. While Brazilians today may be envious of their wealthier northern neighbors, there are some aspects of a developed country's profile that are not worth envying. For example, the U.S. today far exceeds Brazil in the number of suicides, prescription drug overdoses, and mass shootings. GDP growth and economic projections depend on multiple variables, chief among them the global economic situation and worldwide political stability. A war in the Middle East, for example, can affect oil production and have global ramifications. Political stability within a country is also essential to its economic health. Elected presidents play a crucial role in a country's progress, especially as presidents may differ radically in their worldview. The political paths of the U.S. and Brazil are parallel today. In both countries, we've seen a left-wing regime (Obama/PT) followed by a far-right populist one (Trump/Bolsonaro), surprising many outside observers, and in the U.S. contradicting every political pollster, all of whom predicted a Trump loss to Hillary Clinton in 2016. In Brazil, although Bolsonaro was elected by a clear majority, his triumph has created a powerful emotional polarization in the country similar to what is happening in the U.S. Families, friends, and colleagues have split in a love/hate relationship toward the current presidents in the U.S. and Brazil, leaving broken friendships and family ties. Both presidents face enormous challenges to keep their campaign promises. In Brazil, a sluggish economy just recovering from a recession shows no signs of robust GDP growth for at least the next two years. High unemployment continues to devastate the consumer confidence index in Brazil, and Bolsonaro is suffering under his campaign boasts that his Economy Minister, Paulo Guedes, has all the answers to fix Brazil's slump. Additionally, there is no end to the destruction caused by corruption in Brazil. Some experts believe corruption to be the main reason why Brazil has one of the world's largest wealth inequality gaps. Political corruption robs government coffers of desperately needed funds for education and infrastructure, in addition to creating an atmosphere that encourages everyday citizens to underreport income and engage in the shadow economy, thereby sidestepping tax collectors and regulators. "Why should I be honest about reporting my income when nobody else is? The politicians are only going to steal the tax money anyway," one Brazilian doctor told me. While Bolsonaro has promised a housecleaning of corrupt officials, this is a cry Brazilians have heard from every previous administration. In only the first half-year of his presidency, he has made several missteps, such as nominating one of his sons to be the new ambassador to the U.S., despite the congressman's lack of diplomatic credentials. A June poll found that 51 percent of Brazilians now lack confidence in Bolsonaro's leadership. Just this week, Brazil issued regulations that open a fast-track to deport foreigners who are dangerous or have violated the constitution. The rules published on July 26 by Justice Minister Sérgio Moro define a dangerous person as anyone associated with terrorism or organized crime, in addition to football fans with a violent history. Journalists noted that this new regulation had coincidental timing for an American journalist who has come under fire from Moro for publishing private communications of Moro's. Nevertheless, despite overselling his leadership skills, Bolsonaro has made some economic progress. With the help of congressional leader Rodrigo Maia, a bill is moving forward in congress for the restructuring of Brazil's generous pension system. Most Brazilians recognize the long-term value of such a change, which can save the government billions of dollars over the next decade. At merely the possibility of pension reform, outside investors have responded positively, and the São Paulo stock exchange has performed brilliantly, reaching an all-time high earlier this month. In efforts to boost the economy, Bolsonaro and Paulo Guedes have taken the short-term approach advocated by the Chicago school of economics championed by Milton Friedman, who claimed the key to boosting a slugging economy was to cut government spending. Unfortunately many economists, such as Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, disagree with this approach. They believe the most effective way to revive a slow economy is exactly the opposite, to spend more money not less. They say the government should be investing money in education and infrastructure projects, which can help put people back to work. Bolsonaro/Guedes have also talked about reducing business bureaucracy and revising the absurdly complex Brazilian tax system, which inhibits foreign and domestic business investment. It remains to be seen whether Bolsonaro has the political acumen to tackle this Godzilla-sized issue. Should Bolsonaro find a way to reform the tax system, the pension system, and curb the most egregious villains of political bribery and kickbacks – a tall order – his efforts could indeed show strong economic results in time for the next election in 2022. Meanwhile, some prominent leaders have already lost faith in Bolsonaro's efforts. The veteran of political/economic affairs, Joaquim Levy, has parted company with the president after being appointed head of the government's powerful development bank, BNDES. Levy and Bolsonaro butted heads over an appointment Levy made of a former employee of Lula's. When neither man refused to back down, Levy resigned his position at BNDES. Many observers believe Bolsonaro's biggest misstep has been his short-term approach to fixing the economy by loosening the laws protecting the Amazon rainforest. He and Guedes believe that by opening up more of the Amazon to logging, mining, and farming, we will see immediate economic stimulation. On July 28, the lead article of The New York Times detailed the vastly increased deforestation in the Amazon taking place under Bolsonaro's leadership. Environmental experts argue that the economic benefits of increased logging and mining in the Amazon are microscopic compared to the long-term damage to the environment. After pressure from European leaders at the recent G-20 meeting to do more to protect the world's largest rainforest, Bolsonaro echoed a patriotic response demanding that no one has the right to an opinion about the Amazon except Brazilians. In retaliation to worldwide criticism, Bolsonaro threatened to follow Trump's example and pull out of the Paris climate accord; however, Bolsonaro was persuaded by cooler heads to retract his threat. To prove who was in control of Brazil's Amazon region, he appointed a federal police officer with strong ties to agribusiness as head of FUNAI, the country's indigenous agency. In a further insult to the world's environmental leaders, not to mention common sense, Paulo Guedes held a news conference on July 25 in Manaus, the largest city in the rainforest, where he declared that since the Amazon forest is known for being the "lungs" of the world, Brazil should charge other countries for all the oxygen the forest produces. Bolsonaro/Guedes also have promised to finish paving BR-319, a controversial highway that cuts through the Amazon forest, linking Manaus to the state of Rondônia and the rest of the country. Inaugurated in 1976, BR-319 was abandoned by federal governments in the 1980s and again in the 1990s as far too costly and risky. Environmentalists believe the highway's completion will seal a death knoll on many indigenous populations by vastly facilitating the growth of the logging and mining industries. Several dozen heavily armed miners dressed in military fatigues invaded a Wajãpi village recently in the state of Amapá near the border of French Guiana and fatally stabbed one of the community's leaders. While Brazil's environmental protection policies are desperately lacking these days, not all the news here was bad. On the opening day of the 2019 Pan America Games in Lima, Peru, Brazilian Luisa Baptista, swam, biked, and ran her way to the gold medal in the women's triathlon. The silver medal went to Vittoria Lopes, another Brazilian. B. Michael Rubin is an American writer living in Brazil.

Brazil Has No Exemplary Past or Present. But What Lies Ahead for the Country?

For years, experts have debated what separates a developing country from a developed one. ...