Budget and Atlantic forest challenge the Army’s mega-work – 06/12/2023 – Politics

On March 23 of last year, then President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) unveiled a plaque to lay the cornerstone of the future School of Army Sergeants in the metropolitan region of Recife.

It seemed like the irreversible act of a megaproject valued at BRL 1.74 billion, started in the last decade and whose works, which have not even started, could last for at least ten years.

Since the festive event, however, doubts have arisen about the undertaking that moves politicians from four states, above all from Pernambuco.

In Minas Gerais is the current ESA (Escola de Sergeant de Armas) of Três Corações, a city that is still struggling against the imminent loss of one of the pillars of its economy and its fame – in this regard, the ESA is only surpassed by its most illustrious son of the land, Pele.

Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná, where Santa Maria and Ponta Grossa are located, finalist municipalities, alongside Greater Recife, in a process started with 16 competitors, in theory they are conformed, but the direct involvement of their governors and mayors in the process indicates that remain alert in case of any problems with the elected headquarters.

The announcement of the choice of Pernambuco by the High Command of the Army was made in October 2021. The corporation’s summit highlighted the union of politicians, businessmen and Pernambuco society around the project as one of the differentials that made them choose the state, and they see how sure that the school will be installed there.

Both parties emphasize the economic and social potential of the work, which would generate jobs and income for the region – the workforce would exceed 6,000 people, including students and administrative staff, and the payroll is estimated at more than R$ 211 million per year.

But it remains to be defined where the funds will come from for a project that two years ago was budgeted at around R$ 1 billion and is now at least R$ 740 million more expensive – some actors involved have already rounded it up to 1.8 billion.

The Army initially planned to use the money it intended to raise from the sale of land it owns in Brasília close to the old Rodoferroviária for the work. There, the Government of the Federal District (GDF) plans to build a new neighborhood. But it is possible that it will take a long time for the money to come out, depending on negotiations with GDF and developers.

The Army says that, upon becoming aware of the project, the Minister of Defense, José Múcio, committed to seeking resources from the Union Budget to guarantee the work and speed up its progress.

“We think that Minister Múcio is an excellent idea. He thinks that it would speed up the process, that if the budgetary resource were guaranteed and regular, we could gain from one to two years”, says General Richard Nunes, head of the Department of Education and Culture of the Army and former military commander of the Northeast – in this last position he actively participated in the process that chose Pernambuco.

Federal deputy Augusto Coutinho (Republicanos-PE ), one of the coordinators of the Pernambuco group in the Chamber of Deputies, confirms the inflection in relation to the original plan.

“There is in fact a reassessment taking place to arrange other sources, including not to wait for the process of effecting this sale [do terreno do Exército]. This is already an idea of ​​the new government, of Múcio with President Lula.”

Múcio says that’s not quite the case and goes on to say that the money will come from negotiating the Army’s land.

“Taking BRL 1.8 billion from the Budget… is a lot of money. First we need to decide if it’s going to be in Pernambuco, and I’m sure it will be. The Army is determined to spend it, I just said: look, it’s such an important work that I am willing to help with the Budget.”

Asked whether President Lula is aware of the project, Múcio said that “in passing”.

The Army also counts on the State Executive and the federal bench of Pernambuco in Congress – which has already earmarked R$ 15 million in bench amendments for the undertaking.

The counterpart of the state government, initially disclosed as R$ 330 million, will be R$ 110 million. Not even 10% of the total, as the Army commander, General Tomás Paiva, stressed when presenting the project at a recent hearing in the Chamber.

The future complex was embraced by former governor Paulo Câmara (PSB), and now the management of Raquel Lyra, who also supports the undertaking, has created a working group to monitor its implementation.

forest and springs

While the origin of the resources remains uncertain, an environmental impasse is unfolding.

The land reserved for the works, in the municipality of Abreu e Lima, within the Army’s Marechal Newton Cavalcanti Instruction Field, is within the Aldeia-Beberibe APA (Environmental Protection Area) and concentrates springs that supply the main water reservoir of the Recife, as well as one of the rare remnants of the state’s Atlantic forest.

According to the Socio-Environmental Forum of Aldeia, it is the largest block of this biome north of the São Francisco River.

A complementary law from 2011 determines that military enterprises for the preparation and employment of the Armed Forces are exempt from environmental licensing.

To prevent the APA from being affected, activists called the Federal Public Ministry and have had the support of federal deputy Túlio Gadêlha (Rede), from the same party as the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, from whom they are also seeking support.

The instruction field that will house the work has 7,400 hectares (more than 46 parks in Ibirapuera), and the Army claims that the school will occupy a maximum of 2% of the area, and that the portion to be deforested will be even smaller.

It informs that it will comply with state and federal environmental legislation, that the springs will not be affected and that it will make compensation with replanting greater than the area to be felled. He also remembers that, in the 1940s, the area was taken over by cane fields, and started to be regenerated when, in that decade, it passed into the hands of the Army.

The president of the Socio-Environmental Forum of Aldeia, Herbert Tejo, recognizes that the military occupation was crucial for preservation, but provokes: “It’s like a family that adopts a child, takes care of it, recovers it and, when the child is strong and healthy, decides to traffic an organ of it”.

Tejo complains that the area to be deforested for the work is the heart of the preserved forest, and says that there are, in the immensity of the instruction field, other suitable places for the project that have already been deforested.

The fact is that the controversy has stirred up the Tricordians – as those born in Três Corações are called.

At the end of January, the mayor of Três Corações, José Roberto de Paiva Gomes, aka Gordo Dentista (PSD), published a video to announce the “wonderful news” –in fact, false news– that there was “90% chance ” of ESA not leaving Três Corações, as the future headquarters “is prohibited by the environment”.

in one place

The new School of Army Sergeants will unify in a single complex 16 military organizations currently involved in the two years of training sergeants, who at the end receive a technical diploma.

The first year is held in barracks across the country; in the second, the military specializes in weapons and services, in the units of Três Corações (weapons), Rio de Janeiro (logistics) and Taubaté (aviation mechanics).

In addition to the school itself (with pavilions, course park, shooting range, etc.), the complex’s project foresees the construction of an Olympic village, military residential villages and annexes –a structure that, according to the project’s authors, will help move the economy of eight municipalities close to Recife (Abreu e Lima, Araçoiaba, Paudalho, Tracunhaém, Igarassu, Camaragibe, São Lourenço da Mata and Carpina).

For the Army, despite the uncertainties, the new school seems irreversible. “It is a mature and technical decision, it is not a political decision. I would say that it may also have had a geopolitical character, by deconcentrating units from the center-south of the country, something we have always thought about”, says General Richard.

“The Army was very great in decentralizing this agenda of opportunities concentrated in the South”, strokes Múcio. According to the minister, the school in Pernambuco is not guaranteed because “it is 100% certain, but that we will all die one day, nothing is 100% guaranteed when the arbitration is political”.

He, however, doesn’t even consider a plan B: “I don’t want, as a Pernambucan, not even to think about it.” Deputy Coutinho follows suit, evoking Lula’s background. “A president from Pernambuco losing that would be demoralizing. There is no possibility of that happening.”