Under Bolsonaro, Army dominates leading positions in defense ministry

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Bolsonaro administration has altered the Ministry of Defense’s composition, favoring the Army in high-ranking positions to the detriment of the Navy and Air Force.

For the first time in history there is an imbalance at the top of the portfolio’s triple structure, which last week completed 22 years. There are no longer any admirals or brigadiers in the main posts.

At stake is influence on the allocation of funds for the military, which this year totaled R$103 (US$20) billion, according to current data from the Federal Budget Panel. With the current composition, the Army will also have the power to influence revisions in the progress of the three forces’ strategic projects.

Created in 1999 by the President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, through a merger of the former ministries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Ministry of Defense was first led by a civilian Minister. A tacit agreement between military and government authorities guaranteed non-military power in the area and prevented the dominance of one force over the others.

This tradition began to be broken 3 years ago, when President Michel Temer appointed Army General Joaquim Silva e Luna to the post of Minister, and now, under Bolsonaro, with the decision to remove representatives of the Naval and Air forces from the top positions in the second rank.

The current head of the Defense Ministry, Walter Braga Netto, himself a reserve army general, decided that the occupants of the two main posts subordinate to him should now wear the olive-green uniform.

Currently, the Secretary-General, second in rank, is retired Brigadier General Sergio José Pereira, the Minister’s most trusted man. Pereira replaced Fleet Admiral Almir Garnier Santos, appointed by Bolsonaro as the Navy’s commander-general in April. The post of Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, another important position, is held by General Laerte de Souza Santos. He replaced Air Lieutenant Brigadier Raul Botelho, who retired in May.

The armed forces used to take turns in second-ranking posts – a tradition that still applies to other positions, such as the head of the War College (ESG), currently held by the Navy. Behind the scenes, Braga Netto’s decision caused malaise among senior Navy and Air Force officers. The two forces only have members in third-level positions and advisors to the minister.

Discontent

Braga Netto broke the fine balance among the three Armed Forces in the Ministry when he took office on March 31. He came in as a man trusted by the president to intervene in the political crisis that resulted in the unprecedented resignation of the entire former military leadership. The trigger of Bolsonaro’s discontent is said to have been the former Army Command, his home force, from which he was demanding demonstrations of support.

“This has never happened before. It is clear that it generates discomfort in the adequate balance relationship between the forces,” says ex-Defense Minister and former federal deputy Aldo Rebelo. “The concern has always been there to prevent one force from prevailing over the others in the demands for resources for funding and for strategic projects.”

Defense has undergone some changes to impose civilian control over the military and to moderate disputes throughout recent history. These include the creation, in the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presidency, of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces in 2010, when documents such as the National Defense Policy, the National Defense Strategy, and the National Defense White Paper were also implemented.

Structure

Since 2013, the portfolio has three key positions: Minister of State, Secretary General, and Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These are the most prestigious and politically powerful positions in the direction of Defense policy. The last to be created was the Secretary General, during the Dilma Rousseff administration, as an attempt to provide more civilian representation to the Ministry and to balance the military influence of the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is always an active duty officer.

The General Secretariat of Defense centralizes the discussion about resources and coordinates the other secretariats of the portfolio: Budget and Institutional Organization; Personnel, Education, Health and Sports; Defense Products; the Northern Border Program; and the Operational and Management Center of the Amazon Protection System. The Joint Chief Staff coordinates the heads of Strategic Affairs, Joint Operations, and Logistics and Mobilizations.

If compared to the duties of other Ministries, the Secretary General is a kind of executive secretary, second in line of importance. The only difference is that, in the Minister of Defense’s absence, by law the post of Minister must be exercised by one of the three Armed Forces commanders.

Until the management of ex-Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva, a retired Army general, never did a single force dominate all three posts as it does now. Since the end of Temer’s administration, these positions were held by an admiral and a brigadier, thus granting representation to the Naval and Air Forces, as the head of the Ministry had been returned to a military officer after 19 years.

Complaints

An active Admiral familiar with the background of the Ministry of Defense said under anonymity to prevent the violation of the Military Statute, that the lack of representation is indeed a cause for complaint and was the main change promoted by Braga Netto. He argues that the dominance of the Army is unhealthy and broke with a rotation tradition in the positions and with the search for parity.

At the end of the Temer administration, when the Minister was the current president of Petrobras, Army Reserve General Joaquim Silva e Luna, the positions were also divided: the Chief of Staff was Fleet Admiral Ademir Sobrinho, while the Secretary General was Air Lieutenant Brigadier Carlos Augusto Amaral Oliveira.

The last civilian Minister, Raul Jungmann, kept Silva e Luna as Secretary General and Sobrinho as Joint Chief of Staff. Before him, the ex-ministers of the Dilma Rousseff government Aldo Rebelo and Jaques Wagner had only changed the Secretary-General. Army General José Carlos de Nardi remained for the entire period as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In 2015, Aldo Rebelo appointed Silva e Luna as his Secretary-General, in replacement of the last civilian to hold the position, nurse Eva Maria Dal Chiavon, an advisor to Jaques Wagner in the Senate. Before her, the position was held by attorney Ari Matos Cardoso, when it was created by ex-Minister Celso Amorim, in 2013.

The Defense Minister failed to respond to a request for comment.