Brazilian Workers Party activists will suggest to President Lula the extinction or modification of the Brazilian Marines and Army Special Forces

DefesaNet Note

Translation from the Portuguese text:

Ativistas do PT e PSOL irão sugerir ao Presidente Lula a extinção ou modificação das Forças de Operações Especiais do CFN e EB

The Editor
Brief historical background

Brazilian Armed Forces has developed a very special skill to operate in uban areas, as the American Military call: Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT). Operating alone or in conjuction with Police State Forces.

Iconic representation of these operations is the photo of  one Brazilian Marine Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAVP-7) in a hill top, during 2010 intervention in Cruzeiro slum. Certainlly several kilometers ahead from near shore landing.    (Photo below)

The Editor

Nelson Düring
Chief-editor DefesaNet

  • Brazilian Workers Party activists will suggest to President Lula the extinction or modification of the Brazilian Marines and Army Special Forces
  • Political groups act to guarantee the sanctuaries obtained with Supreme Court  ADFP 635 (Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental 635), known as Slum Protection or Reduction of police lethality.
  • Proposition to reduce the capacity of action or even the extinction of the Special Forces of the Brazilian Navy Marine and the Brazilian Army . Action planned to reach State Military Police Forces such worldwide known BOPE (RJ) and ROTA (SP)

Proposition to reduce the capacity of action or even the extinction of the Special Forces of the Brazilian Navy Marine(Fuzileiros Navais) and the Brazilian Army . Action planned to reach also State Military Police Forces worldwide known BOPE (RJ) and ROTA (SP)

Political experts linked to issues related to topics such as Human Rights, Minorities and Public Security, from the Workers’ Party (PT) and the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), are working on a joint document to be sent privately to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who must make the assessment, or not, by May 22, 2023.

The document to be sent will suggest to the PR, the extinction of the Military Organizations of the Navy and Army, being respectively the Marine Corps Special Operations Battalion (BtlOpEspFuzNav) and the Special Operations Command (COpEsp).

With the plan anticipating if there is unfeasibility or strong internal resistance within the operational frameworks of both Military Organizations, in order to make the goal meet, then a short-medium-term piecemeal action must be followed, which must do:

I – Modification of the budget (downgrading it to subsistence levels);

II – Modification of existing structures;

III – Modification of the culture linked to death;

IV – Modification of the courses offered;

V – Modification of the licenses, symbols and badges used by both Military Organizations;

VI – Reduce or terminate links and exchange activities with military units belonging to NATO.

The report, which should exceed 200 pages, and ironically, has technical assistance for its formulation by retired military personnel from areas of the Armada Corps – Brazilian Navy – and the Company of Parachute Precursors, belonging to the Army.

The reasons for the suggestion of extinction are given, in principle, for a political-ideological nature, in particular because the units of the Marine Corps and the Army were one of the main fronts for tracking and neutralizing activities and armed insurgencies with a communist bias in the interior of Brazil until the end of the 1980s, still under the military regime, and these Special Operations units were often used as precision tools for the state intelligence services at the time – which, according to the document to be sent – directly favored the disappearance of activists politicians.

However, the main and urgent focus, not openly explained, that will be addressed is the violence applied against ethnic minorities in Law and Order (GLO) operations, especially in the State of Rio de Janeiro, where – according to the document in preparation – the Amphibious Command (AfCom) and Commando (EB) units, proportionally, made more casualties against Public Order Disturbing Agents (APOP) compared to the other Armed Forces units combined in the same Theater of Operations (TO), generating a high number of deaths, mainly black people, thus avoiding the focus of bringing peace, acceptance and justice, however they applied “structures of structural and cultural racism applied by the military power”.

Attached to the document, it must contain:

I – Internal photographs of the premises of Military Organizations;

II – Course manuals, doctrines and activities;

III – WhatsApp group conversations between military personnel from both organizations;

IV – Audio and video recordings;

V – Confidential internal documents of both Military Organizations;

Such means were extracted with the facilitation of ex-soldiers who belonged to the Combat Divers Group (GruMeC) and the Parachute Precursors Company (Cia Prec Pqdt), and were obtained by them during training, visits, meetings and joint exchanges, in a coordinated effort that resulted in an accumulation of digital files over 7 years.

The collaboration included part of a small group of Privates – including the Variable Staff – and Officers contrary to the conservative and politically inflexible views of most of the members of the Tonelero Battalion (CFN), 1st Commando Action Battalion and 1st Forces Battalion Specials, which according to these former soldiers, “could pose an imminent risk to the democratic rule of law and the security of other powers, generating considerable risk to the country’s institutions and stability”.

The action, within the scope of the suggestion, will also guide that the active staff of both Military Organizations – BtlOpEspFuzNav and COpEsp –, if the President of the Republic chooses to opt for the extinction of the respective units, that their active military be reassigned to points diffuse and far from the national territory to exercise conventional functions of a preferably internal-administrative nature in their respective Military Forces, and if possible, to avoid divisions or collaborations of joint work in the same sector and/or group with military personnel completing courses related to Special Operations , so as to thwart any type of articulation for retaliation, insurrection, conflict or action of a similar nature, due to the knowledge acquired by the members of these units.

Also in the suggestion to be sent, there will be an excerpt – which is still being worked on, but with convergences – that in the impossibility of not accepting immediate or short-term extinction, that the common symbols used by these units be modified, such as:

I – The eagle symbol of Recognition Actions being replaced by an owl or pigeon grabbing a book that will send the constitution;

II – The ray being replaced by a flowering branch of yellow ipe;

III – And the skull being replaced by two hands of different colors – black and white – greeting each other, or a blue helmet with a canary carrying foliage in its beak, referring to peace.

The pilot test, as a laboratory form, in which they used to test the level of morale and reaction of Federal Special Operations units, was the recent measure of prohibition of the operational camouflage uniform by the Special Operations group of the PRF, through the Second Circular Letter No. 2/2023 on January 13 being applied, causing the Rapid Response Group (GRR) to wear a navy blue uniform, ineffective for the actions, adding to the extinction of tactical-specialized groups throughout the Federative Units, actions that resulted on the part of the PRF agents a result of resistance on the applications imposed in a value and numerical force equal to zero, and from this small-scale laboratory observation, there was the perception that something more altering could be applied gradually and on a large scale, without major noise, at most, as usual, with some explanatory note on Twitter, which was also not done.

In addition, it is known by leftist political movements that the active and reserve operational staff of Brazilian Navy Marine Battalion of Special Operations  (BtlOpEspFuzNav) and Army Command of special Operations (CopEsp) are currently the most prepared and capable in the field against the agents of leftist parties, which would make the management of the current situation extremely difficult. government in strategic sectors in the Armed Forces and in dialogue with military associations, creating a strong and impenetrable entry barrier.

Ideological groups moved already in the election campaign, taking candidate Luis Inácio Lula da Silva to an electoral event in Complexo do Alemão, 12OUT2022. The proposal also has the character of electoral pressure, for which both CV and other groups, including even militias, carried out in support of the electoral campaign of the PT candidate.

This action against the Military Special Forces would be a future guarantee and pressure against the state governments for the demobilization of special groups of the Military Police, such as: BOPE (RJ), ROTA (SP) and others in the other states.

This is a consequence of Action for Non-Compliance with Fundamental Precepts (ADPF) 635, requested by the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) and sanctioned by STF Minister Edison Fachin in December 2019.

An act by the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, who extinguished the Specialized Operations Commands (COEs) of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), which existed in each of the five regions of the country. The minister wants the PRF to focus on its core business, which is to inspect federal highways.

The regional COEs were notified of the decision this Friday (JAN13). However, the extinction actually occurred on January 24.

The press welcomed the return to the core activity of the PRF, as a result of the activist campaign that did not accept the participation of COE members in the Vila Cruzeiro (RJ) action, 24MAI2022. The scenario in the urban area of Rio de Janeiro (Metropolitan Arch) and the federal highways that integrate it, especially the BR-116, suffer today from cargo theft. (Note that cargo theft is now more profitable than drug trafficking for gangs in Rio de Janeiro.)

We hope that if this suggestion reaches the President of the Republic, he will use his wisdom not to carry it out nor interfere in the activities related to the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces. We must remember that the Marine Corps Special Operations Battalion, as well as the Special Operations Command, belong to the State, not the government. Any and all interference, or in the most extreme case, the hypothetical extinction, will result in irreversible loss in terms of knowledge, tactics and indispensable and strategic procedures that have been acquired over successive years, which are used to safeguard the country’s interests in the application of power in war or conflict efforts where Brazil is represented.

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