Navy Commander asks for extra funding via opposition PEC – 12/03/2023 – Power

The commander of the Navy, Admiral Marcos Sampaio Olsen, stated this Sunday (3) that the PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) articulated by opposition senators to ensure that Brazil’s defense budget is equal to or greater than 2% of GDP ( Gross Domestic Product) is “absolutely necessary” for the Force.

According to Olsen, only with the budget forecast will it be possible to restructure the Navy with ships and submarines to respond to “external threats”.

“Investments in defense are long-term, and this imposes a need for budgetary predictability. It is in this sense that the PEC is absolutely necessary so that the Forces can plan and execute this”, the commander told Sheet.

“We have lived for decades with the mistaken thought that Brazil does not have threats. Brazil has threats, we had one in 2019, an oil spill, and this goes against the interests of society and needs to be seen as a threat”, he added.

The defense budget PEC was filed by senator Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ), leader of the main opposition party to the Lula government (PT). Such as Sheet showed, the Navy participated in articulating the proposal and made moves to show popular support for it.

The Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, is in favor of the proposal; The government leader in the Senate, Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), is the main candidate to be the rapporteur.

The Force argues that, given the budget restrictions of recent years, it is predicted that, by 2028, around 40% of the Navy’s vessels will be discarded without due replacement.

“From the first meeting I had with President Lula, the central issue was investments in the Armed Forces that would allow them to re-equip […]. The Navy is attentive to this aspect, seeking to ensure that resources are re-equipped and can respond appropriately to these provocations,” Olsen told Sheet.

The commander’s statements were made after the Navy held a ceremony to replace the national flag at Praça dos Três Poderes, in Brasília. This is one of the events commemorating Navy Day, celebrated on December 13, the birth day of Marquês de Tamandaré, patron of the Naval Force.

The event also marked the beginning of an advertising campaign by the Navy whose objective is to rescue its image as that of a Force formed by the Brazilian people — in an attempt to reverse the successive crises that the Armed Forces faced due to their participation in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government and for the military’s relationship with the January 8 attacks.

Added to the crisis in the Navy was an excerpt from former aide-de-camp Mauro Cid that former Force commander Almir Garnier had supported coup plans against Lula’s election in a meeting with Bolsonaro at Palácio da Alvorada.

In protest against Lula, Garnier did not participate in the Navy’s handover ceremony in January — an unprecedented act in democracy.

Olsen assesses that, despite the crises involving the Forces at the beginning of the year, the Navy remained a “national and independent institution, which serves the interests of society”.

“We had a somewhat tumultuous start to the year, with possible involvement of the Forces, a suspicion on the part of society that needed to be stopped. Particularly, within the scope of the Naval Force, I didn’t notice, despite the events you were aware of. mentioned, no dissonance in terms of guidance, authority, commitment of hierarchy and discipline”, added the commander.