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Brazil Military in the Amazon
The Amazon region occupies more than half of Brazil's territory.
In 1985 the army announced the Northern Corridor (Calha Norte) project,
in an attempt to establish better control of Brazil's interests
in the Amazon. The project has consisted of building a series of
outposts along the Brazilian border with Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana,
Suriname, and French Guiana. Some of these outposts have been established.
Calha Norte is therefore more than a military project. Its goals
are to provide effective control of the border, improve the local
infrastructure, and promote economic development of the region.
The army has increased the number of posts near the border from
eight to nineteen. The posts are placed under five Special Frontier
Battalions, with headquarters from west to east in Tabatinga, Rio
Branco, São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Boa Vista, and Macapá.
In addition, the army has been transferring battalions from the
South
and Southeast to the Amazon: the Seventeenth Motorized Infantry
Battalion from Cruz Alta to the Seventeenth Jungle Infantry Battalion;
the Sixty-first Motorized Infantry Battalion in Santo Angelo to
the Sixty-first Jungle Infantry Battalion; and the Sixty-first Engineering
and Construction Battalion at Cruzeiro do Sul to Rio Branco. The
First Brigade in Petrópolis, Rio
de Janeiro State, was moved to Tefé, Amazonas, except
for one infantry battalion. Lastly, the army was planning to open
two new garrisons in the Rio Negro region, at Tunui and Asuno do
Içana.
Some Brazilian officers have warned against "foreign
intervention" in the region. In July 1991, Army General
Antenor de Santa Cruz Abreu, then chief of the Amazon Region Military
Command (Comando Militar da Amazônia--CMA), threatened that
the army would "transform the Amazon into a new Vietnam"
if developed countries continued to "internationalize"
the region. The vitriol subsided partially in January 1992, when
General Santa Cruz Abreu was replaced by General Carlos Anníbal
Pacheco, who dispelled some of the concerns about the "internationalization"
of the Amazon.
In 1993 the Brazilian
press reported on United States-Guyana military exercises near
the Brazil-Guyana border. The proximity of the exercise to the Brazilian
border provoked an angry response from many high-ranking Brazilian
officers and government officials. United
States joint exercises were also held with Colombia and Suriname,
to the consternation of the Brazilians. In a show of force on October
4, 1994, the armed forces were involved in Operation Surumu, the
largest combined and joint maneuvers ever carried out in the Amazon.
The exercises were held north of the city of Boa Vista in the state
of Roraima, over an area of 34,900 square kilometers. They included
the participation of eight countries in a war against Cratenia,
an imaginary enemy. The exercises involved 5,000 soldiers, thirty-seven
aircraft, four ships, and two hospital ships. The army had the largest
contingent with 3,000 men. The air force dropped 700 parachutists
into the jungle and was involved in transporting most of the troops,
many by civilian aircraft. The navy provided logistical support,
using riverine patrol boats. The joint nature of the maneuvers indicated
that whereas the army would continue to take the lead in the Amazon,
the other two services (especially the air force) also would be
involved.
However, such massive operations are specially staged affairs,
giving an impression of military power that is not reflected in
the day-to-day reality. The commanding general of the First Jungle
Brigade, headquartered in Boa Vista, oversees two infantry battalions,
whose units are spread from the Guyana border to that with Colombia.
One battalion headquarters is located in Boa Vista, the other in
São Gabriel da Cachoeira. The general does not have his own
aircraft, and he must request transport from Manaus if he wishes
to inspect his troops. Headquarters maintains contact with the units
via radio. The first battalion maintains five Special Border Platoons
(Pelotões Especiais de Fronteira--PEFs) at Bom Fim and Normandia
on the Guyana side, at Pacarema (also called BV-8, for the eighth
marker on the Brazil-Venezuelan line), Surucucu, and Auaris facing
Venezuela. The second battalion at São Gabriel da Cachoeira
has PEFs at Maturaca (near Pico da Neblina) and Cucui on the Venezuela
border, and three more looking toward Colombia at Matapi, Uaupés,
and Iauaretê.
The platoons consist of about seventy soldiers, corporals, and
sergeants, and five officers, the most senior of whom is usually
a lieutenant. Many of the soldiers are recruited locally. In Roraima
many of the soldiers are Macuxí and Wapishana Indians.
In late 1993, the armed forces received presidential approval for
the Amazon Region Surveillance System (Sistema de Vigilância
da Amazônia--Sivam). Sivam will consist of a large network
of radar, communication systems, and data processing centers and
should assist the government in air traffic control and its efforts
to curb deforestation and drug trafficking. The control centers
of Sivam will be in Manaus, Belém, Porto Velho, and Brasília.
It will take at least eight years to install the system, at a cost
of US$1.55 billion. Sivam will include five Embraer EMB-120 Brasílias
carrying Ericsson Radar Electronics
Erieye airborne early warning and control system. Sivam is part
of a larger plan called the Amazon Region Protection System (Sistema
de Proteção da Amazônia--Sipam). The purpose
of Sipam is to provide a more sophisticated infrastructure for policing
the Amazon.
The Sivam case was particularly controversial in 1994 and 1995
and involved Brasília, Paris, and Washington. In June 1994,
two days after then United
States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown visited Brasília,
President Itamar Franco decided to award the Sivam contract to a
consortium led by Raytheon (United States), instead of to a group
led by Thomson CSF (France). In December 1994, when many legislators
already had left Brasília for the Christmas
holidays, Brazil's Senate approved the financing of Sivam. A
Brazilian senator reportedly received US$7 million to expedite congressional
approval. In February 1995, the New York Times reported that the
United States Central Intelligence Agency had discovered that Thomson
CSF paid bribes to Brazilian officials. French diplomats countered
that it was the United States that bribed Brazilian officials, paying
$30 million Dollar
to obtain the contract. France charged the United States with industrial
espionage and expelled five staff members from the United States
Embassy in Paris.
In March 1995, Raytheon's Brazilian partner, Automation and Control
Systems Engineering (Engenharia de Sistemas de Contrôle e
Automação--ESCA), which was hired to manage Sivam
and to develop the system's control software, was removed from the
project because of fraud in social security contributions in Brazil.
In its place, the Brazilian government proposed a team of Ministry
of Aeronautics experts. However, wiretapping and alleged influence-peddling
created the most serious crisis for the Cardoso administration in
its first year in office, and threatened the very future of the
Sivam project.
At least two dozen Brazilian government organizations deal with
the Amazon, in addition to many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
from both Brazil and abroad. The vast array of organizations reflects
the many interests in the Amazon, which include concerns with national
security, indigenous peoples, economic development, the environment,
and drug trafficking. These interests often clash. In an attempt
to coordinate Brazil's Amazon policies,
President Franco created the Ministry of Environment and the
Legal Amazon on August 18, 1993 (later renamed Ministry of Environment,
Hydraulic Resources, and the Legal Amazon), and placed Rubens Ricúpero
at the helm. Ricúpero, the chief negotiator of the 1977 Amazonian
Cooperation Treaty, was brought from the post of ambassador in Washington.
President
Collor established the Yanomami Indigenous Park, encompassing
9.5 million hectares of territory adjacent to Venezuela. The reservation
is home to 25,000 members of the Yanomami tribe, 10,000 of whom
live on the Brazilian side of the reserve. The 600 gold prospectors
who lived on or near Yanomami land and ignored the extensive reservation
were expelled. In 1992 President Collor demarcated the territory,
and in the following year mining revenues dropped considerably.
The problems associated with competing interests in the Amazon
became apparent in August 1993, when at least sixteen Yanomami Indians
were massacred near the Brazil-Venezuela border. Twenty-three illegal
gold prospectors were arrested and charged with the slayings. They
were later acquitted, after investigations allegedly indicated that
the Indians had died in conflict with other Indians.
The governors of Roraima, Amazonas, and Pará states have
called for the reduction in the area of the reservations. According
to one poll, 51 percent of Brazil's legislators agreed with that
position. Many officers within the armed forces have also expressed
their discontent with the size of the reservations. A common argument
is that there are few Yanomami per square kilometer allotted to
them.
In early 1994, there was a broad consensus in Brazil on the need
to expand the military presence along the border. Such a presence
was supported by Ministers Ricúpero and Flores. Brazilians
have expressed concerns about sovereignty, particularly the encroachment
by the United States and others via drug interdiction and environmentalism.
Despite such consensus, however, only limited funding has been available
to the Ministry of Environment, Hydraulic Resources, and the Legal
Amazon, and the constant clash of interests has impeded a coordinated
policy.
Data as of April 1997
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