Brazil's defence minister Nelson Jobim has met his counterparts in Argentina and Uruguay, Arturo Puricelli and Luis Rosadilla, respectively, to deepen the defence alliance within Mercosur. The visit follows Brazil's strategy to increase military cooperation with its neighbours to dissuade external threats to the region's three main natural resources: energy, potable water and food production.
In Buenos Aires, Jobim agreed with Puricelli that both nations should develop “joint military industry capability." Among projects that could be developed in partnership is the production of a light military vehicle, the so called Gaucho, and cooperation between Brazil's aircraft manufacturer Embraer and Argentina's Fadea to manufacture KC 390 cargo planes, designed with Brazilian technology, at a factory in Córdoba, Argentina. According to Jobim, the plane could be launched on the global market in 2018.
In the joint declaration that followed, Brazil and Argentina agreed to give mutual logistical support to each other's missions in the Antarctic and to keep the South Atlantic free of nuclear weapons. In this sense, Jobim reiterated Brazil's “historical support" for Argentina's claim of sovereignty over the British Falkland Islands. “I will be going to the UK in the next few weeks and will tell the British [...] that we will not cooperate with any military or merchant navy ship to explore energy from those islands," Jobim declared.
In early January, the Brazilian government refused to grant authorisation for the British navy ship HMS Clyde, which was on its way to the Falklands, to moor in Rio de Janeiro as scheduled [WR-11-02]. The Brazilian refusal confirmed that the new administration of President Dilma Rousseff will take a more active approach to Argentine claims over the islands, as discussed with her Argentine counterpart Cristina Fernández during lunch in Buenos Aires late last year.
In Montevideo, Jobim discussed the state of affairs in Haiti, where both Brazil and Uruguay have military contingents. Jobim met President José Mujica, who seems keen to develop joint military aviation projects. According to local reports, the Uruguayan government proposed the installation of a factory in Uruguay in cooperation with Brazil to produce pieces for military planes as well as ammunition. Jobim said that the issue had not been discussed properly during the visit but declared that Brazil was committed to forming a South American “defence industry."
Jobim went on to lament the “logistical dependency" of the region on the military industries of developed nations. “Now we have no control of the Atlantic and in the future we will have to control our air space. From 2025, air space control will be done through satellites and not radars and we will need to have in place the necessary capability to take this control," he said.
Rio's civilian police chief sacked
Constable Allan Turnowski was asked to tender his resignation as civilian police chief in Rio de Janeiro after 30 policemen, included military policemen, were arrested accused of helping drug traffickers and militiamen with information about police operations. The scandal led Rio's governor, Sergio Cabral, to put the command of the civilian police in the state directly under the control of the public security secretary. Before resigning, Turnowski, passed on information suggesting another constable, Cláudio Ferraz, who commanded the operation that led to the 30 arrests, had committed similar irregularities.
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