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Brazil Military Role in Counter-Drug Actions
The escalation of the war on drugs in the Andean region has led
narco-traffickers to change their shipment routes, and Brazil increasingly
is being used as such, especially for drugs sent to
Africa and Europe.
In addition, some drug producers in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia
have used Brazil as a shelter from security forces in their countries.
Brazil is a major supplier of precursor chemicals. In the early
1990s, Brazil created the Special Secretariat for Drugs (Secretaria
Especial de Entorpecentes--SEE) to coordinate the government's counter-drug
actions.
Brazil's military has been reluctant to become involved in the
war against drugs. Officers argue that, according to the constitution,
it is the responsibility of the Federal Police to pursue such a
war. The armed forces consider their involvement to be potentially
corrupting and are loathe to become entangled in a "no-win"
war. Furthermore, Brazilians, like other Latin Americans, are sensitive
to
United States involvement in the region and fear the United
States may use the antidrug role as a rationale for an expanded
presence in Brazil. From 1990 through 1993, the United States provided
Brazil with approximately $1 million Dollar
a year for antidrug activities. As a result of United States Attorney
General Janet Reno's visit to attend President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso's inauguration on January 1, 1995,
the antidrug agreement was renewed in April 1995, just before Cardoso's
official visit to the United States.
The armed forces have been willing to provide logistical and intelligence
support to the Federal Police in the war against drug trafficking.
They have also become increasingly involved in countering the spread
of armaments among the drug traffickers. In 1994 there were an estimated
40,000 illegal weapons in Rio de Janeiro. The constitution gives
the army the responsibility for supervising armaments. In addition,
the army's Eastern Command has provided the Military Police (Polícia
Militar--PM) of Rio de Janeiro State with many weapons, long-range
vision goggles, and bulletproof vests for countering the well-armed
drug traffickers. In October 1993, the army provided the police
forces with 7.62-millimeter FAL assault rifles--the first time such
rifles were used by police forces in Brazil. The army also trained
members of the Special Operations Battalion (Batalhão de
Operações Especiais--Bope).
In October 1993, some police officers were implicated in the smuggling
of arms to the traffickers, and as a result the army was called
on to take firmer measures. All weapons seized in police operations
were to be put under army control in military arsenals. In addition,
special army agents were to work with the Civil Police, Military
Police, and Federal Police forces to identify the traffickers' arms
sources.
Drug trafficking and domestic consumption are, by all accounts,
on the rise. Some of the groups involved in drug trafficking control
entire shantytowns (favelas) and are far better armed than the Federal
Police or State Police. In October 1994, there were reports that
up to 70 percent of the police force was receiving payoffs by the
heavily armed drug-trafficking gangs in the favelas. Growing public
demands that law and order be restored in Rio de Janeiro prompted
the Itamar Franco government to order the army to launch an offensive
against the gangs and to oversee a purge of the police force. The
army, under the command of a general, mobilized as many as 70,000
soldiers for the operation in the favelas.
The task force that identified the corruption was led by António
Carlos Biscaia, attorney general of Rio de Janeiro State. Corruption
in Rio de Janeiro was widespread, and included the Civil Police,
Military Police, judges, and prosecutors. In addition, the Rio de
Janeiro governor, Nilo Batista, was induced to sign an agreement
with the federal government allowing for federal intervention through
the army, which took over the security command of Rio de Janeiro
prior to the 1994 gubernatorial elections. By mid-1995 the army
had largely pulled out, but the security situation was little improved.
Data as of April 1997
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