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Personnel and Training - Officer Recruitment
Because the only entry into the regular officer corps is the AMAN,
its records provide an accurate picture of the officer corps. In
the decades following World War II, cadets from middle-class families
increased, while those from upper-class and unskilled lower-class
families declined. The total number of applicants also declined
as a result of economic development diversification, which gave
high school graduates more attractive options than entering the
military. Increasingly, AMAN cadets came from among the graduates
of the army-supported Military Schools, which sons of military personnel
attended tuition free. Many of these students
were sons of NCOs whose own origins were not middle class, so a
form of intra-institutional, upward mobility existed.
The trend in the 1960s to recruit from civilian sources has abated.
The mental, health, and physical aptitude tests excluded large numbers
of civilian school graduates: in 1977 of 1,145 civilians attempting
the tests, only thirty-four, or 3 percent, were admitted. In 1985
only 174, or 11 percent, of the AMAN's 1,555 cadets were graduates
of civilian schools; the rest were from the army's
Military School system, the Cadet Preparatory School (Escola Preparatória
de Cadetes--EPC), or air
force or navy
secondary schools. In the early 1990s, AMAN cadets were drawn exclusively
from those who had completed the EPC. By the mid-1990s, the AMAN's
cadet population was about 3,000.
In the twentieth century, the officer corps has been composed predominantly
of men from the Southeast and South of Brazil, where military units
and greater educational opportunities have been concentrated. In
1901-02 the Northeast contributed 38 percent of students at the
army's preparatory school in Realengo, whereas in 1982 it provided
only 13 percent to the preparatory school in Campinas. In the same
years, the Southeast supplied 40.4 percent and 77 percent, while
the South gave 8.6 percent and 6.3 percent. Although São
Paulo, according to Alfred Stepan and other observers, has not
been noted for sending its young men into the officer corps, its
contribution increased from 4.3 percent of students in 1901-02 to
33.5 percent in 1982. Regional origins of cadets at the AMAN were
fairly consistent in the 1964-85 period. By far the largest contingent
came from the state and city of Rio
de Janeiro.
Although social theorists might be pleased with indications that
the army is serving as a vehicle for social mobility, army leaders
are concerned. Officers have remarked on the trend toward lower-class
recruitment in the Training Center for Reserve Officers (Centro
de Preparação de Oficiais da Reserva--CPOR) and the
problems associated with such officers. In a 1986 interview, the
former minister of army, General Leônidas Pires Gonçalves,
observed that he did not want officers who would give only five
or ten years to the army; he wanted individuals with a military
vocation, who would stay for a full thirty-plus-year career. Many
officers have expressed concern that those seeking to use the army
to improve their status are not sufficiently dedicated to the institution.
Indeed, some officers seek the earliest possible retirement in order
to get a second job (second salary) to make ends meet.
Data as of April 1997
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