Employment of the Brazilian Armed Forces against cross-border crimes

Abstract

This topic of dissertation – "Employment of the Brazilian Armed Forces in CrossBorders Crimes" was chosen because the importance of the theme, not only in regional context, but in international level as well. It aims to analyze how the Brazilian Armed Forces currently are being employed against non-conventional threats, particularly, crossborder crimes Therefore, this work shows how Brazilian Armed Forces have being employed in a secondary role – keeping internal security, in absence of main threats to homeland defense. When studying this main object, it will intend, as well, to provide suggestions of how to face transnational crimes – forms of non-conventional threats that can jeopardize the institutional security of a country. It adresses how the Brazilian Armed Forces, together with National Agencies, are trained and equiped to face these crimes, presenting difficulties, challenges, ways out and suggestions, besides obtained experience and lessons learned. In order for this work to be carried out, extensive research was done in bibliographical material related to the subject, both at the library of the International College of Defense Studies (ICDS) / National Defese University (NDU), as in official documents of the Ministry of Defense of Brazil and of the three singular forces: Brazilian Navy, Brazilian Army and Brazilian Air Force. Also, a detailed research was made in the world Network of computers, in order to further enlarge the research on the subject. The development of this research will be divided in 5(five) segments and it will be analyzed from global to particular: First, in chapter one, it is intended to present a general overview about the regional situation, addressing the south american subcontinent and the location of Brazil in this context. Also, a number of information and basic concepts will be presented regarding topics of importance for research, such as: the situation of the borders and the relationship of Brazil with the respective countries neighbouring; transnational crimes – its causes, developing, current situation and its impacts to the National Security. Following the research, in Chapter two, it will be described the use of Brazilian Armed Forces when employed in this kind of non-traditional threats, the constitutional 3 missions of the Brazilian Armed Forces, as well other Agencies with the task of preventing or hindering the entry of illegal products in the country. Besides, the work will show the main forces of this cooperation in fighting crossborder crimes, addressing how they changed their structure, what special equipments and weapons they acquired to suit to new missions and what change in doctrine. Moreover, the main counter measures against these threats will be presented, such as the SISFRON (Brazilian Acronym to Border Monitoring Integrated System). In the third Chapter, after the understanding about the crimes and the main forces used to fight against them, it will be analyzed some real cases, aiming to give good experiences and lessons learned, what will be useful to the main objective of this dissertation. In these presented cases, it will be possible to identify the efforts made by the Brazilian Government to hinder the entry of illegal products, which so much harm the society. In Chapter four, this work will cite the Obtained Experiences and Lessons Learned, through studies made in previous chapters. These ideas can bring new ideas that can be useful on future situations. In the last Chapter, before concluding this work, it will be presented the main challenges, the ways out and important suggestions to all levels: national, regional and international. Lastly, the dissertation will be concluded, stressing some important points addressed in this work. To attend the above foreseen demands, some theoretic concepts and explanations have to be made, in order to make the dissertation more clearly, to know: security and defense definitions; contemporary threats; South American context; transnational crimes; Armed Forces main role and complementary duties; and other agencies involved in Transnational Crimes.