The military component
One aspect of the leadership role Lula's Brazil sees itself playing in the region is the preservation of stability in the region. This includes continuing with, and extending, the confidence-building initiatives with Argentina and seeking to establish collective-security mechanisms — such as the first-ever meeting of South American defence ministers held in April in Rio. It also includes a containment strategy to deal with `serious unconventional threats' such as the spillover of drug trafficking and guerrilla activity from Colombia and, eventually, Peru.
In early July, the Brazilian military tested their readiness to respond to such threats with an exercise codenamed Operação Timbó, which involved deploying the army troops stationed in Manaus, with support from the navy and air force — 5,000 in all — to points along the borders with Colombia (1,645 kilometres) and Peru (2,995km). This followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the defence ministries of Brazil and Colombia on intelligence-sharing and cooperation regarding drug and arms trafficking. In turn, it was followed by the announcement that Brazil would greatly strengthen its military presence along the outer reaches of the Amazon basin, deploying units currently stationed in the south and southeast of the country.
The commander of the army, General Francisco Albuquerque, has said he intends to raise the number of troops stationed in the Amazonian region from 23,000 (of which 5,000 in border areas) to 25,000, with redeployments that would place more units closer to the borders. The first step will be the establishment of a 3,000-strong jungle infantry brigade at São Gabriel da Cachoeira, a site which allows control of the borders with Venezuela and Colombia in the area known as Cabeça do Cachorro (`Pup's Head') and the headwaters of the Rio Negro. A forward platoon will be stationed at Santo Antônio do Içá, on the Rio Içá, continuation of Colombia's Putumayo.
Later, the army plans to establish two more units at Santa Isabel do Rio Negro and Barcelos. In the Cabeça do Cachorro area the Brazilian military have in the past gone into action against incursions by the Farc guerrillas (and have had to deal with unauthorised entries by the Colombian military). There is also provision for the establishment of five more forward platoons along the Peruvian border, southward of the point where Brazil meets Colombia and Peru — at Estirão do Equador, Palmeira do Javari, Cruzeiro do Sul, Marechal Thaumaturgo and Santa Rosa do Purus.
The budget for this has been raised from the R$14m (US$4.7m) allocated in January to R$42m (US$14m), though disbursements have been sluggish. In October, the foreign affairs committee of the chamber of deputies announced that it would be recommending further increases in funding to strengthen the military presence in Amazonia.
The air force has already become actively involved in the containment plan. In February it conducted a test bombing of a clandestine airstrip near the border with Suriname, as part of a scheme to escalate the federal police's drive to deny landing facilities to drug traffickers (previous police attempts to put the strips out of action with explosive charges proved to be only temporarily effective). The results were deemed good enough to prepare a more far-reaching bombing campaign in the Cabeça do Cachorro area, due to start in late October. [The Brazilian government's target is to get the country removed from the list of major drug-trafficking routes by 2005.]
The sophisticated surveillance system created to monitor the Amazonian region, Sivam (com
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