Brazil's Military, Less Than It Was, Is Asked to Do More

www.nytimes.com By LARRY ROHTER

RASÍLIA, March 14 — If crime is getting out of hand and the police cannot control the situation, send in the army. If extra help is needed to build and repair highways, distribute food to the poor or run sports training programs, call on the military.

After nearly two decades on the margins of Brazilian life, the armed forces have been thrust back into the center of things. Since taking office on Jan. 1, the left-wing government here has increasingly been looking to the 185,000 members of the military to perform tasks to advance President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's ambitious social development agenda. Advertisement

When violence ordered by drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro threatened to interfere with this month's Carnival festivities, 3,000 soldiers were sent to maintain order. But that action has set off a growing national debate as to whether restoring or expanding the role of the armed forces is appropriate in a country that lived under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.

"When military rule ended, there was a hiatus in which everything associated with the military and every initiative the dictatorship had taken had to be defenestrated," said Geraldo Cavagnari, a former army colonel and a professor at the Strategic Studies Center at the University of Campinas. "But time has passed, democratic rule is firmly implanted, and we have now entered a period of reflection about the military and the tasks it should undertake."

The new government's penchant for relying on the armed forces is noteworthy given the background of its leaders. During the dictatorship, both the president of Mr. da Silva's Workers' Party, José Genoino, and the man who is now presidential chief of staff, José Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva — to cite just two of many — were members of guerrilla groups that fought the army, and both were eventually jailed.

But as Mr. da Silva's press spokesman, André Singer, said in January, "The president has emphasized that the country needs the involvement of all of society in the tasks of government." Recent pledges made to the International Monetary Fund to reduce spending have left him with little money for the new social programs, like "zero hunger," that he championed as a candidate last year.

Mr. da Silva "made lots of promises, and the military are one of the few resources he has available," said Richard Millett, an American expert on the Latin American military. "They're already on the payroll, they're already in the places they need to be, and they've got discipline. They may not be the first choice, but there is no second choice."

For the most part, military leaders have indicated that they welcome a higher profile, especially if it means that more money from the tight government budget will come their way. Their financial situation has been so difficult recently that the army had to send 44,000 soldiers home last year because it could no longer afford to house and feed them. Flying time for air force pilots has had to be curtailed because of lack of reliable aircraft and spare parts, and even ammunition is scarce.

But others have begun warning of the dangers of an expanded role for the military, some of them already made manifest. During Carnival, an army unit shot and killed a 51-year-old teacher when his car ran a late night roadblock in a dangerous neighborhood. His family is considering legal action, contending that the soldiers should have shot out the tires of his car instead.

"Our generals, who are inundated with material problems in keeping the spirit of their troops high, know that soldiers are not prepared for this kind of combat and that the institutional risk is high," Denise Frossard, a former judge who is now a member of Congress, wrote in an essay published this week in the daily Jornal do Brasil. In addition, she wrote, "the manner in which the armed forces are being employed tramples the Constitution."

The army is withdrawing the troops from Rio, mostly because of a dispute between the federal government and the state governor over broader public security policy questions. But the Rio state security secretary, Josias Quintal, has said he favors stationing troops in the city permanently and expanding their role to include combatting drug trafficking.

Similarly, the transportation minister, Anderson Adauto, has said he envisions army engineering battalions building up to 600 miles of road a year, a throwback to the era of military-built projects like the trans-Amazon highway. He also said he would like to put military officers in charge of procurement at his ministry because he thinks they are honest and the agency currently responsible for that task is not.

Perhaps the most unusual plan involving the military, though, would allow poor children to use the sports facilities at military bases. The program also calls for army drill instructors to train Brazilian athletes for competitions.

"Sports are a powerful instrument of social inclusion," Sports Minister Agnelo Queiroz, a member of the Communist Party of Brazil, said in a recent speech. "The armed forces are in agreement and also enthusiastic about this project."

José Viegas, in his first speech as defense minister in January, said he had no objection to the armed forces taking part "in the noble task of supporting the social development of our country," but only so long as it "does not hamper their principal task, which is the safeguarding of our sovereignty." He declined a request for an interview.

Similar experiments have been tried, with largely unfavorable results, in other Latin American countries where the military is also searching for new, nonpolitical roles. In Venezuela, where the last military dictator was deposed 45 years ago, President Hugo Chávez set up Plan Bolivar 2000, which calls for the military to build schools and roads, operate medical clinics and sell food at subsidized prices in poor areas.

Many senior military officers there opposed involvement, saying it would lead to corruption and the politicization of the armed forces, and indeed both occurred as the program was carried out. In Colombia, using the army alongside the police in counternarcotics efforts has also fomented corruption while undermining discipline and morale.

"The Brazilian military doesn't have the operational capacity to do all of this," Dr. Cavagnari said. "People forget the armed forces were neglected and abandoned for years. If their capacity to perform their main mission is low, then imagine their ability to carry out these complementary missions."