Navy doctor becomes first black admiral – 04/04/2023 – Politics

Doctor Maria Cecília Barbosa da Silva Conceição was promoted by the Navy to the rank of admiral, becoming the first black woman to reach the rank in the history of the Force.

The promotion was defined in February by the Admiralty, and the appointment was confirmed last week. This Tuesday (4th) she participated in the ceremony in which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) greeted the newly promoted general officers, at the Planalto Palace.

“I’m very happy, I feel rewarded. Our career in the Brazilian Navy is surrounded by difficult moments, good moments, and the institution opens up this opportunity for female officers to reach, on their own merit, higher positions during their careers. rewarded and happy to be part of the group of Navy admirals,” said Maria Cecília to Sheet.

With the promotion, the admiral will occupy the position of director of the Department of Health and Social Assistance of the Secretariat for Personnel, Health, Sports and Social Projects of the Ministry of Defense.

“I think that [promoção] it has to be a stimulus for more women to enter the Armed Forces because she can reach even the highest rank. Women only started to join the Navy in 1981 and, from now on, it should become more and more natural that we manage to reach the high levels, these admiral ranks”, she said.

Before Maria Cecília, only two other women had reached the rank of admiral —the top of the Navy. The first was physician Dalva Maria Carvalho Mendes, in 2012. She entered the Navy in 1981, the year that the Force allowed women to join.

In 2018, the Navy promoted engineer Luciana Mascarenhas da Costa Marroni to the rank of rear admiral.

“Now it was my turn. I believe that from now on other admirals will emerge because a large number of women are already joining the ranks”, concluded Maria Cecília.

The Navy and Air Force have promoted women to general officer positions over the past decade. The Army was the last to allow women to participate in preparatory courses for the generalship, and the forecast is that the first to reach the rank will reach the rank in 2027.

To reach the position of four-star general, the highest in the career, the military must enter the Army through Aman (Military Academy of Agulhas Negras). The first class with women only finished the course in 2021, after 210 years of the institution’s history.

The ceremony of greeting the newly promoted general officers was held this Tuesday in the context in which the Armed Forces and President Lula are rehearsing a rapprochement, after a troubled period in which the military mixed with politics in the wake of Bolsonarism.

The event, at the Planalto Palace, is the first of a series that the Army is preparing for this month, with the expectation that Lula will participate in some of them. On April 19, Army Day, the president must participate in the commemoration of the date; a lunch between the president and the generals of the High Command of the Force should also be held this month.

During the government transition period, there was fear among the military that Lula could embrace the idea that grew in the PT, in 2016, of changing the criteria for promoting officers.

Lula, however, issued a message through interlocutors that he only wanted to depoliticize the Armed Forces and seek rapprochement through increased investment in strategic defense projects.