Brazilian Army

Brazilian Army
Exército Brasileiro
Coat of arms of the Brazilian Army.svg
Brazilian Army Seal
Active 1822–present
Country  Brazil
Branch Army
Size 222.151 [1]
Part of Ministry of Defence
Command Headquarters Brasília
Patron Duke of Caxias
Motto Braço Forte, Mão Amiga
(Strong arm, friendly hand)
March Canção do Exército
Anniversaries August 25 (Soldier's Day)
April 19 (Brazilian Army Day)
Equipment 469 Main battle tanks
1,280 armored vehicles
6,676 military vehicles
656 artillery pieces
80 helicopters
Engagements
Commanders
Commander-in-Chief President Dilma Rousseff
Commander Army General Enzo Martins Peri
Notable
commanders		 Duke of Caxias
Eurico Gaspar Dutra
Artur da Costa e Silva

The Brazilian Army is the land arm of the Brazilian Armed Forces. The Brazilian Army has fought in several international conflicts, mostly in South America and during the 19th century, such as the Brazilian War of Independence (1822-23), Cisplatine War (1825-28), War of the Farrapos (1835-45), Platine War (1851-52), Uruguayan War (1864-65) and the Paraguayan War (1864-70). It has also participated on the side of the Allies at World War I and World War II.

In principle, the Brazilian Constitution designates the 400,000-strong Brazilian military police as a reserve force of the Army, although in practice they remain separate entities.

History

Origins

The Brazilian Army was created during the process of the independence of Brazil from Portugal, in 1822, with the units of the Portuguese Army in Brazil that have remained loyal to Prince Dom Pedro. The Army was initially composed of Brazilians, Portuguese and foreign mercenaries. Most of its commanders, were Portuguese officers loyal to Dom Pedro.

Along 1822 and 1823, the Brazilian Army was able to defeat the Portuguese resistance (especially in Bahia and Cisplatina) and also avoid a fragmentation of the then new Brazilian Empire after its independence war.

19th century

The Battle of Campo Grande during the Paraguayan War, 1871.

After the Independence War, the Army destroyed any separatist tendencies of the early years, supporting the authority of Emperor Dom Pedro I across his vast country and was complemented by the National Guard, a paramilitary militia supported by big slave and land owners, known as "Colonels".

In the Regency Era period, after the abdication of the first Emperor the Army had to repress a host of popular movements for political autonomy and/or against the slavery and colonels' power across Brazil.

On May 1, 1865, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina signed the |Triple Alliance to defend themselves against aggression from Paraguay, which was ruled by the dictator Francisco López. López troops, after invading Brazilian territory through the state of Mato Grosso and the north of Argentina, were heading for the South of Brazil and North of Uruguay. Many slaves had been incorporated into the Brazilian forces to face the increasingly serious situation. As a result of their solid performance during the conflict, the Armed Forces developed a strong sense against slavery. After 5 years of a terrible warfare (the largest in South American history), the Alliance led by Brazil defeated Lopez.

Between 1893 and 1926, the first Republican Period, the Army had to deal with various movements: some were derived from Navy and Army corps who were unsatisfied with the regime and clamoring for democratic changes, while others had popular origins without conventional political intentions guided by messianic leaders like Canudos War.

20th century

German General Otto Fretter-Pico, Commander of the 148th Infantry Division, and General Mario Carloni surrendering to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, 1945.

During World War I the Brazilian government sent three small military groups to Europe soon after declaring war upon Central Powers in October 1917. The first two units were from the Army; one consisted of medical staff and the other of a sergeants-officers corps, and both were attached to the French Army in the Western Front in 1918.

From October 1930 to 1945, the Army supported the Getúlio Vargas regime against its opposition, defeating the Constitutionalist Revolt in 1932 and two separate coup d'état attempts: by Communists in 1935 and by Fascists in 1938. The Army also helped to formalize the dictatorship in 1937.

In August 1942, after German and Italian submarines sunk many Brazilian merchant ships, popular mobilization forced the Brazilian government to declare war on Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In July 1944, after almost two years of public pressure, one expeditionary force, called Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB), was sent to Europe to join the Allied forces in the Italian campaign. The FEB was composed of more than 25,000 men and was commanded by Major-General (later Marshal) João Baptista Mascarenhas de Morais.

On March 31, 1964, the Brazilian Army, then led by General Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, seized power through a coup d'état, beginning the Military Dictatorship in Brazil, which lasted 21 years. This was the first of a series of coups d'état in South America that replaced democratically elected governments with military regimes. These dictatorships dominated South American until the 1980s. In this period the Brazilian Army employed harsh means to suppress militant dissident groups: changing the law, restricting political rights, after harassing and pursuing dissidents; and militarily, with support of police forces and militias, proceeding with methods of counter-guerrilla and counter-insurgency warfare to defeat the guerrilla movements that tried to combat the regime by force. The urban guerrillas were active in Brazil between 1968 and 1971 while in the rural areas the 2 main movements subdued by the Army were respectively, one in the region where are today the Caparaó National Park (1967) and the other in the region of Araguaya River (1972–74).

Internationally, in 1965 the Brazilian Army joined forces with US Marines intervening in the Dominican Republic, in Operation Powerpack. Already during the 1970s strengthened interchange and cooperative ties with armies from other South American countries giving and receiving advisement about counter-guerrilla and counter-insurgency methods, as for example in the Operation Condor, a procedural coordination to find, capture and eliminate political dissidents in mainland.

In the mid '70s, despite the dissent annulled (by elimination, detention or exile), the leftist guerrillas defeated and the legal opposition tamed, repression was not reduced. This added to the vices and the wear and tear of years of dictatorial power, plus the effects of the then oil/energy crisis and the Latin American debt one, during the late '70s and early '80s, led to increasing social pressures for democracy, which slowly but steadily forced the army to return to its professional activities.

21st century

Haitian civilians receive assistance in a camp set up by the Brazilian Army in Port-au-Prince, 2010.

Since the 1950s it has taken part in some United Nations missions as for example: Suez 1956-67, East Timor 1999-2004, Angola 1995-1997 and Haiti since 2004, being the latest, the most recent outside intervention in Haiti.

In the great earthquake that occurred in Haiti on January 12, 2010, eighteen Brazilian soldiers died. The Brazilian Army has now about 1.250 troops in Haiti and will envoy more 900 until March 2010, to help the reconstruction of that country.

The Brazilian Army is trying to renew its equipments and making a redistribution of its barracks in all the Brazilian Regions, prioritizing the Amazon. After the promulgation of Brazilian National Defense Strategy, in December 2008, the Brazilian Government appears to be interested in the Armed Forces modernization.

In 2010, during the Rio de Janeiro Security Crisis, the Brazilian Army sent 800 paratroopers to combat drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro. Following the invasion, approximately 2,000 Army soldiers were sent to occupy the Complexo do Alemão.

Brazilian Army today

The Brazilian Army had a recorded personnel strength of 222,151 active personnel.[2] In addition there were approximately 1,115,000 reserve soldiers.[3]

Equipment

Further information: Modern equipment of the Brazilian Army and List of active Brazilian military aircraft

An overview of the Army's equipment in 2011;

In addition the Brazilian Army Aviation Command operates 82 helicopters.

Organization

Structure of the Brazilian Army

High Command

  • Terrestrial Operations Command (Commando de Operações Terrestres) - Brasília
  • Army General Staff (Estado Maior do Exército) - Brasília

Military Commands

The Army is structured into seven military commands. Each of the seven military commands is responsible for one or more military regions.

Military Regions

The Brazilian territory is further divided into twelve military regions. Each military region has jurisdiction over one or more states and is subordinate to a military command.

Main units

Brigades:

Jungle Warfare

Brazilian Army Soldiers the Special Border Platoon, jungle warfare.

The Brazilian Army has five Jungle Infantry Brigades (1st, 2nd, 16th, 17th, and 23rd Jungle Infantry Brigades) and a Jungle Warfare Instruction Centre.

The Jungle Warfare Instruction Centre CIGS, also known as Colonel Jorge Teixeira Centre, is a military organisation based in Manaus, intended to qualify military leaders of small groups, as wilderness warriors, fighters able to accomplish missions, in military nature in the most inhospitable areas of the Brazilian rainforest.

Courses are taught in jungle operations in three distinct categories, and stages of the military and for civilians. Its symbol is the jaguar.

For the better development of the work, Jungle Warfare instruction Center (CIGS) is structured in a Division of Education, a Division of the Doctrine Research and Assessment Division of Students, a Division of Veterinary Medicine, a Division of Administration and Administrative Base.[4]

Special Forces

Brazilian Army SOF during the Independence Day Parade in Brasília, 2003.

The Special Operations Brigade is Brazil's special operations force. Although administratively assigned to the Plateau Military Command, the brigade's operations are under the direct control of the Land Operations Command.[5] Special Forces were initially formed in 1957 as a parachute trained rescue unit, which specialized in conducting deep jungle rescues along the Amazon basin. After conducting its initial selection, a US Army Special Forces Mobile Training Team (MTT) conducted the unit's first training course.[6]

Conditions of Service

According to Article 143 of the 1988 constitution, military service is obligatory for men, but conscientious objection is allowed. Women and clergymen are exempt from compulsory military service. At age seventeen, men are required to register for the draft and are expected to serve when they reach age eighteen. About 75 percent of those registering receive deferments.

Generally, those from the upper class and upper middle class find ways to defer, and as a result the ranks are made up primarily of lower-class and lower-middle-class recruits. A growing number of recruits are volunteers, accounting for about one-third of the total. Those who serve generally spend one year of regular enlistment at an army garrison near their home. Some are allowed six-month service terms but are expected to complete high school at the same time. These are called "Tiros de Guerra", or "shooting schools", which are for high school boys in medium-sized interior towns, run by army sergeants. The army is the only service with a large number of conscripts; the navy and air force have very few.

The conscript system is primarily a means of providing basic military training to a sizable group of young men who then return to civilian life and are retained on the reserve rolls until age forty-five. The army recognizes that it provides a public service by teaching large numbers of conscripts basic skills that can be valuable to the overall economy when the young men return to civilian life.

Gallery

See also

Units

References

  1. ^ http://www.forte.jor.br/2009/07/25/o-tamanho-do-exercito-brasileiro/
  2. ^ http://www.forte.jor.br/2009/07/25/o-tamanho-do-exercito-brasileiro/
  3. ^ Os pés de barro de um gigante Revista Época. Retrieved on 2009-02-01. (Portuguese)
  4. ^ Jungle Warfare instruction Center Brazilian Army, accessed on May 8, 2008. (in Portuguese)
  5. ^ Land Operations Command Brazilian Army, accessed on May 8, 2008. (in Portuguese)
  6. ^ Special Operations Brigade Brazilian Army, accessed on May 8, 2008. (in Portuguese)

External links