Brazil: War Mobilization Act Effective Since Late December

Brazil has just created its National Mobilization System, a legal procedure to coordinate both the official action and the private production sector in case of war threat or foreign aggression. Sinamob Law 11,631 has been effective since last December.

The law that created the National Mobilization System (Sinamob) in Brazil was discussed by the National Congress for four years and came up in the wake of the 9/11 attack when the country's president was Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Sinamob Law was signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and was sneakingly gazetted in the Union's official daily gazette Diario Oficial da Uniao (DOU) on Dec.28,2007. The new mobilization scheme shall be controlled by the Ministry of Defense and will count on the participation of ten ministries, namely the Ministries of Defense, Justice, Foreign Affairs, Planning, Budget and Management, Science and Technology, Treasury, National Integration and the Civil House, in addition to the Office of Institutional Security (GSI) and the Communication Secretary's Office of the President of the Republic. The new law provides that the Ministry of Defense shall be responsible for carrying out defensive operations whenever there is a situation of risk to national sovereignty or to the national integrity. It also provides that the President of the Republic shall determine the geographical space of the national territory where such strategical defense actions shall be taken. The Federation Units (states) may be called to join the defense efforts or to re-direct local production and consumption of goods and services. It provides, further, that the national mobilization should be characterized by its "urgency" ("celerity" [celeridade] in Portuguese) and "compulsory nature" ("compulsoriedade" in Portuguese), and empowers the President of the Republic to decree a mobilization with either previous or later legislative authorization. Sinamob law aims at filling a legal gap that has existed in Brazil since the country's participation in World War II. There was no specific law providing for strategic mobilization in case of "foreign aggression". Existing procedures were less than legal and were more specifically related to mere military mobilization and did not necessarily involve the rest of society as a whole. Brazil had a modest participation in the two world conflicts in the 20th century and, since then, Brazilian troops have been sent abroad on peace missions, either on behalf of the United Nations or the Organization of the American States. Brazil is known to be a peace-loving country, but the new sabre-rattling law contrasts sharply with current complaints against the scrapping-up of the Brazilian military equipment, against the lack of modern equipment and investments in the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, besides the matter of the low pay of the military; an army trooper, for example, is paid less than a Federal District military policeman(PM). Brazil has not been on war for over sixty years now, and the last time the national territory was attacked took place during the Paraguay War in the 19th century. Of the 719 aircraft used by the Brazilian Air Force, it was estimated last October that only 267 were in airworthy condition. Another 220 were parked in maintenance service areas and the remaining 232 could not take off as they needed replacement spare parts or components to fly. The Air Force complains about the need for medium-range air-to-air missiles, strike helicopters and smart bombs. In the Navy, less than half of combat vessels are in fighting condition and it is estimated that twenty per cent of Brazil's military naval fleet will have to be discharged from service in three years from now. The Army, on the other hand, still uses vehicles that have been in service for over thirty years, including combat cars and anti-aircraft artillery, owing to the lack of resources for computer maintenance and components. The Army's aiming and shooting capability is only manual, as recently reported by Brazil's leading daily paper O Estado de Sao Paulo. The Armed Forces have been pressing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to get them re-equipped and to give them a pay rise. Both President Lula's body guard and his presidential Airbus air force pilot, for instance, are paid slightly over 4,000 Brazilian royals a month. At the same time, Minister of Defense Nelson Jobim has been working hard to get the country's first nuclear-powered submarine out of the navy's shipbuilding yard as soon as possible. It seems that the Sinamob law has been prompted by some sling-and-arrow "elite" segments of the local peace-loving society, rather than by true patriotism.