Public Forces (Brazil)
By preventing federal intervention and securing the authority of state oligarchies, they strengthened the First Republic's political system.
The largest, the Public Force of São Paulo, was prestigious; it hired a French training mission years before the Brazilian Army and had artillery and aviation.
After the 1930 Revolution and especially in the Estado Novo (1937–1945), Getúlio Vargas promoted political centralization and the Army realized its ambition of hegemony over the security forces.
The political system in the First Brazilian Republic left extensive powers in the hands of state oligarchies and municipal coronelism.
The 1891 Constitution had federalism as its principle and allowed states to negotiate with each other and to legislate on any matter that had not been denied them—including the organization of military forces.
[5] It was divorced from the civilian elites, especially in São Paulo and Minas Gerais,[6] and was not yet a "national organization capable of effectively planning and executing a defense policy in its broadest sense".
There was still theoretically the National Guard, and in times of crisis local colonels mobilized "patriotic battalions" with their peons and henchmen.
[15] Within the states, the Public Forces served as praetorian guards for the groups in power and could be used against internal enemies.
[19][20] The official denomination of "Public Force" was not standard in all states and times, and in Rio Grande do Sul the name "Military Brigade" remained.
[22] By 1920, police outnumbered federal troops in half the states, including Bahia, Pernambuco, and São Paulo; in 1930, Minas Gerais was also in this group.
[23] For neighboring countries, state forces were reserve armies, making Brazil more militarized than it claimed to be at international conferences.
[28] The largest Public Force was in São Paulo, but Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia also had large numbers.
[22] The three strongest states (São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul) had the most prominent police forces.
Bahia and Pernambuco were mentioned by Ruy Barbosa as capable of facing the Union in 1898, but they do not appear as having "small armies" in the historiography.
It "was tactically insurmountable, well equipped, with a large number of troops, fierce and excellently trained", but it suffered several defeats against the revolutionary tenentists, who generally had better leadership.
In 1895, an enemy of president Júlio de Castilhos calculated that he could mobilize from seven to eight thousand men through provisional bodies and municipal guards.
It also had its defeats in the 1920s,[40] but in the 1930 Revolution, poorly armed and with a staff of about 5,000 men, it emerged victorious when facing the federal garrison of the 4th Military Region and fronts with all neighboring states.
After 1930, lieutenant Magalhães Barata came to power and extinguished the force, but had to revive it in 1932 to face a constitutionalist revolt in Óbidos.
[43] In Mato Grosso, a state of minor importance and financially dependent on the federal government, the Army garrison outnumbered the Public Force.
[46] The subordination of these forces to the central power was carried out over the decades by the joint action of the Army and the federal government.
[50] In the long run the vast expansion of their numerical presence, thanks to the military lottery, strengthened central power at the expense of local and regional plutocracies.
[52][53][54] Central control over the police increased, but their militarization along the lines of the Army was also accentuated, as there was an intention to use them as a war force.
[56] In power, Getúlio Vargas promoted political centralization and the dismantling of state war apparatuses, especially after the participation of the Public Force of São Paulo in the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 against his government.
[59] In the subsequent authoritarian regime, the Estado Novo (1937–1945), Vargas attempted to control regional elites, appointing interventors in place of governors, overseeing state finances, and transferring powers from the legislature to the president.
[70] During the administration of governor Magalhães Pinto, the Minas Gerais police opposed the national trend, focusing on military preparation.
According to the precepts of the national security ideology, the Military Police should be an auxiliary force in the fight against the armed struggle against the dictatorship.
