Video

Text/Story

Black screen

01:00:10:00

RF Agent Kawashita clip 147 (06:38:46:02)

-3-5, 3-5, copy 50?

Radio: Can you hear me?

What is the target and the direction they are going?

01:00:20:09

RF vehicle tracking targets through rural area

01:00:22:09

RF Agent Kawashita clip 147 (06:38:46:02)

Radio: They are heading to Guanabara.

-But what road are they on?

01:00:32:04

Title Board:

Brazil has one of the longest and most porous borders in the world

RF vehicle tracking targets through rural area

01:00:40:15

RF Agent Kawashita clip 149 06:42:01:13:

-We are approaching the area.

-Do you think you can help with the situation?

-Radio: It's a silver Palio.

01:00:50:21

Title Board:

It shares a border with the three top cocaine producing countries in the world

RF vehicle tracking targets through rural area

01:01:01:13

01:01:04:00

RF Agent clip 149 06:42:01:13:

3-5, we are approaching the place, does your team need help there?

01:01:13:00

Agents get out of car to approach vehicle

01:01:19:00

RF Agent Clip 149 06:43:50:02

-Receita Federal! Exit the vehicle!

01:01:21:00

Program TITLE

Fronteira da Grandeza

1:23

Foz do Igaucu

01:01:32:17

01:01:38:00

Augusto Q2: We’re in Foz do Igaucu, Brazil, and I’m here because I wanted to explore more of this, this border thing right. We, we, first it was two borders, two different countries and I thought that was pretty interesting culturally speaking.

 01:01:52:00

Scenic views of Iguacu Falls

A Panning Shot of water boarder between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. With border animations.

01:01:57:00

Augusto Q3: The Iguacu falls right, the, this border part is, is very mythological in ways. It was once known as the edge of the world by the Indians. It’s a very young city, if you compare it to other big cities in Brazil, and, and it shows that it’s not the end, I mean it’s like the continuity of other things, but they are not Brazil anymore. And by culture I mean, I mean things like this transaction of different ideas and different people from completely different backgrounds living in a very, very close and very enclosed even area. So there’s a shock of a lot of cultures and that’s what attracted me here.

01:02:40:00

Augusto Q9: Man it's surreal in some points, because if you go to Paraguay through the, through the bridge you see a complete different planet there.

01:02:50:00

Bridge to Paraguay.

Google Map Image of the bridge between Paraguay and Brazil.

01:02:59:00

Gen. Polsin Q14: Here in the west of Parana we have two borders, / one with Argentina and one with Paraguay. / With Argentina we have the Tancredo Neves Bridge, / or the bridge of De La Fraternidad / and with Paraguay we have the Friendship Bridge. / These two bridges represent the physical connection between countries. / These bridges were opened a long time ago. / Particularly the Friendship Bridge, because of the intense traffic / it doesn’t keep up with the demand that we have from both countries. /

01:03:51:00

01:03:51:00

Gen Ferreira Q3: The triple frontier on our side is Foz do Iguaçu, / the other Paraguayan and Argentinean partners, really is one of the frontiers / that today is already one of the most lively, which has greater interchange in every sense.

01:04:08:00

01:04:08:00

Gen. Polsin Q14: Naturally, this connection, facilitating transport between countries, / also facilitates crime and contraband, decaminho. / 

01:04:22:00

The ease with which to get there also allows us to say that it is more alive than other points along the border because those areas are more remote.

01:04:34:00Gen Ferreira Q3: There is a greater commercial exchange / and along with that exchange that is done / in a tremendously illicit way, there are also problems concerning the borders. /

01:04:50:00

01:04:52:00

Gen Ferreira Q3: Those problems are not addressed only / by the armed forces, but also by the armed forces. / // The institutional framework, / belongs to the responsible customs organization, in this case Receita Federal, / and in the case of cross-border crimes, the Federal Police.

01:05:11:00

Damaged Crop footage while on patrol

01:05:13:00

Augusto Q6: Foz do Iguacu was founded and populated by military people and military family, and you know, even the, the softest military guy is, thinks differently than a civil, and if you have a population that is that involved that this kind of involvement with the base and with the military affairs, these, you know most likely reflect on the way they do politics and the way they see the world and everything.

01:05:40:00

01:05:42:00

Augusto Q9: It’s funny because the people that actually maintain these borders are, are from here, so they tend to point fingers at the other ones because they’re different. // Most the people here they see like Paraguay as a, as a no-man’s-land, I mean there’s no rules, you know. That’s how they describe it, if you ask any local, // but at the same time, they go there and they shop there and you know, but for them it’s ok.

01:06:09:00

Brazilian soldier pulls over cars at checkpoint

01:06:21:00

Gen Polsin Q3: Operation Agatha started in 2011. / It is an operation developed by the Defense Ministry / within the Strategic Borders Plan / for the entire government.

01:06:38:00

Title Board:

In the years leading up to the World Cup and Summer Olympics, President Dilma vowed to toughen border control. The Strategic Borders Plan, introduced in 2011, gave the military policing power within 150 kilometers of the frontier.

01:06:56:00

Gen Polsin Q4: The primary objective / is to reduce inter-border crimes / along the whole border / of Brazil with its neighboring countries of South America.

01:07:13:00

Soldiers and RF working at checkpoint

01:07:19:00

Min Jobim Q6: Operation Agatha, which was created when I was still Minister of Defense, / was an operation that articulated three groups: / the Ministry of Justice with the Federal Police, / the Ministry of Defense with the Armed Forces, / and the Treasury Department along with the Receita Federal. /

01:07:39:00

RF agent looking at jackets in back of car

01:07:43:00

Gen. Polsin Q10: We basically have two types of crime here. I already talked about crimes on the border. / We have descaminho[1], / which is the entry of products; toys, electronics, and clothing. / Toys, electronics end up having a much lower price / than those that are sold in Brazil, / for different reasons.

01:08:11:00

RF agent backs away from car and explains

01:08:11:00

159 RF agent talks to camera: in ENGLISH

Suspect vehicle, no? In the trunk.

They located some...

...a lot of jackets.

01:08:21:00

ID Rubens Barbosa

Ambassador to the United States

01:08:23:00

Rubens Barbosa Q4: Historically, Paraguay has always had a smuggling problem, / and Brazilians would shop in Paraguay because it is cheaper and the products are imported. / The Brazilian government then tried to regulate that. / There is an allowance, a maximum amount of 500 dollars / that you can spend there and bring into Brazil.

01:08:52:00

01:08:52:00

RF agent Kawashita at table clip 162: [to camera]

Only the jackets will be confiscated. The vehicle is clear.

 01:08:58:00

01:09:10:00

Gen. Polsin Q10: We have crimes. And that is something we have observed, / that we are most concerned about and that we are most engaged / with the entrance of arms, ammunition, explosives and drugs. / And we understand that those are the crimes that we should focus our efforts on, / looking to inhibit, and to diminish / the entrance of these kinds of materials, the arms, the ammunition, / the explosives, the drugs, that eventually feed the crime in the big cities.

01:09:47:00

Paraná river boat patrol

01:09:51:00

Min Jobim Q4: Paraguay’s problem was the entry of drugs and the smuggling, especially cigarette smuggling, tobacco smuggling, / to be consumed in Brazil. / There was significant tobacco production in Paraguay / and the consumption would end up in Brazil because the Brazilian tobacco industry / couldn’t compete with it. / So much so that the tobacco market today, practically 30% of the market of cigarette consumption in Brazil / is contraband from Paraguay, / because there are tax issues, price differences, and all that.

01:10:30:00

Because of protectionist policies, goods are much more expensive in Brazil than in neighboring countries. This creates more potential for smuggling.

01:10:51:00

Gen Ferreira Q14: So, the agencies rely on our, (the army's) logistics infrastructure, / our ability to travel, our capacity for deployment. /

01:11:02:00

Police and military around table

01:11:02:00

Colonel: So I need the Military Police to give us some support / because it’s a sensitive area as you know. /

01:11:08:00

“our” refers to Army or Armed Forces?

01:11:08:00

Gen Ferreira Q14: For us we cannot replace them. / So that we have these agencies together with us, / that is, it is not the presence of the army, / it is the presence of Brazil.

01:11:19:00

01:11:20:00

Min Jobim Q7: For example, we did an operation in the south of the country / in which the Paraguayan government reacted because they thought that we were doing a kind of… / announcing aggressions against Paraguay. / but it was focused to curb smuggling; / weapons, cigarettes, and drugs, specifically those three, but basically drugs. / It worked, worked very well. They even wanted us to suspend it on the  Paraguayan border. / But this was influenced by those people involved in smuggling, who realized that their business would end.

01:11:54:00

At night, RF agents check white truck that has speakers in back.

01:11:55:00

Gen Ferreira Q15: They are operations that aim, first of all, to show all Brazilians / that we can be present, to be present in these places. / The Agatha operations are not intentionally kept secret. / That is, it is an annual operation. There is a time each year when it will occur. / The result often may not be as effective in terms of numbers, seizures. / It may be not as effective in terms of incarcerations, / but they are effective as they allow us to get to know the area better / and can operate more effectively in the area. /

01:12:45:00

Agents have apprehended suspect and check car. Agent holds bags of cocaine.

Operation Agatha Statistics*

SHIFT TO MODERN HISTORY

01:12:52:00

Fabio Q3: The first border in South America was the Treaty of Tordesillas. / The Treaty of Tordesillas established a straight line / from the north to the south.

01:13:05:00

Rick’s Rio helo footage used here.

01:13:06:00

Rubens Barbosa Q6: In 1498 the Treaty of Tordesillas / divided the western world / between the two countries, Portugal and Spain. /// and Portugal gained the piece from the Northeast to Sao Paulo, the whole coast. / That was Portugal, and the rest belonged to Spain. / In 1580 there was the merger of Portugal and Spain / and those borders disappeared for many years.

01:14:02:15

01:14:02:16

Gen Ferreira Q7: With the advent of this unification, the Treaty of Tordesillas lost its raison d'être.

01:14:09:00

Bandeirantes monument

01:14:09:00

Fabio Q3: Then the Portuguese, through the bandeiras, the bandeirantes / moved forward inside the country and formed the curve, / which was legally recognized as the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, / more than 250 years after the Treaty of Tordesillas.

01:14:32:00

01:14:32:00

Gen Ferreira Q7: In that period there was a very strong Portuguese action, / And in this expansion towards the west a new frontier was demarcated / by the fortresses that the Portuguese built, / that gave us a territorial legacy / that through the concept of Uti Possidetis, possession determines ownership.

01:14:59:00

Cut but could be put back:

“And then in 1750 with Alexandre de Gusmão / who managed, by various legal means, / to make this occupation into something that was considered legally viable. / So Brazil’s curve was recognized by him afterwards.”

01:14:59:00

Fabio Q4: We Brazilians are used to telling Portuguese jokes. / Portuguese jokes about how they don’t understand many things. / Those jokes exist maybe because Portugal colonized Brazil, / but the Portuguese / were never as dumb as it is said in those jokes. / They were very smart / because they managed to increase Brazil’s territory / from the Treaty of Tordesillas to the Treaty to Madrid. / They managed to increase Brazil’s territory through that expansion. / and then the occupation through colonization, / and after that there was the final consolidation / with Baron Rio Branco.

01:15:45:00

TRANSITION--WHY SUDDEN INTEREST IN BORDERS?

As Brazil's minister of foreign affairs in the early 1900's, Baron Rio Branco led diplomatic resolution of the boundaries in the Amazon Basin, formalizing brazil's current borders.

01:15:58:00

Fabio Q5: So for a long time since Baron Rio Branco perhaps, / because after the early 1900’s in which the borders were consolidated / we could say that we had stopped thinking about our borders.

01:16:10:00

Navy boat captain on Mamoré River talks about imaginary line

01:16:14:00

Navy Boat Captain: See this island here? We make an imaginary line, beyond this point is Bolivia. / Understand? We make an imaginary division here in the water. / So, any time you go beyond that line, you're in Bolivian water. / Just to have an idea of what is theirs and what is ours.

01:16:35:00

MAP of Peru/Colombia

01:16:35:00

Min Jobim Q2: Well, in the first place, the theme of Brazil’s boundaries started to be, let’s say, / examined during the Fernando Henrique government / when I was Minister of Justice in 1995, / which was basically restricted to one area, which was the border with Peru, / since there was satellite information from American authorities, / that there were breaches across the Brazilian border / to deliver cocaine into Colombia. / It was drug trafficking. / Beforehand, during the José Sarney Government, / there was the decision of creating border posts everywhere in Amazon.

01:17:24:00

01:17:24:00

 Fabio Q5: It happens in the post-cold war environment / with the end of bipolarism when we had the United States and the Soviet Union. / So with the end of bipolarism some states begin to be considered as emergent states. // / Because Brazil said at that moment, “Look, if we want to have a seat in the world we have to deal with our neighbors. We have to relate to our neighbors”.

01:17:53:21

01:17:53:22

Min Jobim Q2: And, well, after that, in President Lula’s Ministry of Defense, / we formulated the National Defense Strategy. / Its first version remains until now with a few modifications. / Well, this strategy argued the need for protecting Brazil's land borders. /  Because the basic thesis of national strategy was that we knew it was impossible to be everywhere.

01:18:30:00

LIVRAMENTO

Santana do Livramento on the border of Uruguay

01:18:45:00

Fabio Q2: In Brazil we have the following situation: / we have 577 cities that are part of the border strip. / The border strip is that space that goes from the borderline / 150 km inside the country. / Of those 577 cities, only 29 cities are border-twin-cities, // / six are placed near the border of Brazil and Uruguay.

01:19:18:00

01:19:21:00

Fabio Q2:  Here you have millions of bridges because there is always a street people can cross. / That results in what? In much more integration / between the two populations, which results in a peculiar situation / almost as if it were a third state / within the states of Brazil and Uruguay. /

01:19:48:00

01:19:48:00

Rubens Barbosa Q17: I think there has been in some border areas a growing / economic and commercial integration, / peaceful and quiet, you know? / Along with the roads that are being built / I think that integration will grow even more / between Brazil and the surrounding countries./

01:20:13:14

01:20:13:15

Fabio Q2: Why is that interesting? Because the whole concept of border is understood as / a space for separation of the states. / The state says, “This territory is mine and the other territory is yours”. // / Here it is different. / Because it’s a meeting spot. It’s a spot for integration. / Integration rises here for a few reasons. // / Geography is the first reason. There is no river / so there is no obstacle preventing communication. / Another important reason / that we saw in our studies were bi-national marriages.

01:20:52:00

01:21:00:00

Vilmar Q2: In Livramento and Rivera it is very natural that people marry people from another country. / We are a very typical case. She is Uruguayan and I am Brazilian. / That’s very common.

01:21:25:00

Vilmar and Mary prepare bbq

01:21:26:00

Vilmar Q5: In Rivera there is this traditional avenue / called Sarandi Avenue. / It’s filled with Brazilians and Uruguayans enjoying free time at night or at weekends. /

Mary Q5: There’s where we began dating. /

Vilmar Q5: There’s where we began dating. /

Mary Q5: And that’s something that comes from our grandparents’ era.

01:21:53:00

Vilmar and Mary continue to prepare bbq

01:22:01:00

Mary Q11: So my father never forbade us, he never said, / I think he never thought of me marrying either a Brazilian or an Uruguayan. / It was the same to him. I don’t know about Vilmar. / I don’t think it ever crossed his mind marrying an Uruguayan too. /

Vilmar Q11: It was already in my family. / Uruguayan father married to a Brazilian. / Spanish grandfather married to a Brazilian. / So it was such a normal thing that there is no... / There is no prohibition there.

01:22:37:07

01:22:37:08

Mary Q5: If we had to build a wall it wouldn’t be possible / since the families are all mixed up, half Uruguayans, half Brazilians. /

01:22:50:00

Transition to Thomas Albornoz border town

Villa Thomaz Albornoz

drone flyover stone fence

01:22:59:00

Miguel Q1: My name is Miguel Angel Fontes da Rosa. / It's my birth name.  / Uruguayan nationality. / Descendant from both sides, Brazilian and Uruguayan. / On my father’s side my grandparents are Brazilian. / On my mother’s side my grandparents are Uruguayan.

01:23:20:00

-Miguel cooks meat

-Miguel cuts meat

-Miguel serves meat

01:23:27:00

Miguel Q1: Brazil and Uruguay, and there is no difference between one and the other. / We are all one, united. / Uruguay or Brazil we are only one. / The whole area is the same.

01:23:50:00

01:23:53:00

Fabio Q1: The first time I came here I asked where I should take the bus to Uruguay. / And they told me that I was already in Uruguay. / I had already crossed the border, / I was in Uruguay and didn’t even realize it. /

01:24:09:21

01:24:09:22

Fabio Q1: I was surprised / and it was the first time I crossed a border without any control, /

01:24:18:00

01:24:19:00

Vilmar Q2: You don’t know when you’re in Brazil and when you’re in Uruguay. / If you don’t know those marks, those monuments, you won’t know where you are. /

Mary Q2: When it starts and where it ends. / The international square is typical from this union. A common square, / half in Brazil half in Uruguay. /

01:24:43:00

Need transition to match script change to new topic about the open border--crime

01:24:45:00

Mary Q8: A long time ago, depending on the political season, / they would bring in the military to keep order. / Especially during the military period. / So they did that, to keep the order. / Because what happens? If someone does something wrong in Brazil’s or Uruguay’s side, / what happens if the bandit or the bad guy does something illegal? He runs to the other country.

01:25:18:07

01:25:18:08

Mary Q8: But there is smuggling. There has always been.

Vilmar Q8: There has always been.

Mary Q8: Or even running from the cops from here to there. Always has been.

01:25:30:00

Mounted Police patrol city

01:25:32:00

Soldado Sena Q8: My name is Sena, Private Sena from the Military Brigade, / Second Mounted Cavalry Regiment / situated in Santana do Livramento.

01:25:43:04

01:25:45:00

Soldado Sena Q1:

We patrol six hours a day. / We get onto our horses at the base / and we move to the downtown area of the city. / We start with the main city square / because it is a tourist area, an international area // / so that the population can see us, to give the people a sense of security.

01:26:08:00

01:26:17:00

Soldado Miriam Q2: We have a very big problem with citizens of Uruguay, / because they come here to commit crimes. /

01:26:28:00

01:26:29:00

Soldado Miriam Q4: They know that if they cross the border we can’t go after them, / we have to stay on the Brazilian side. / We do have a good relationship with the Uruguayan police, / we talk with them, / and anytime we call over there they will also get into it / and talk to us and usually we can catch the people because / Uruguayan law enforcement is ready to attend to our requests.

01:26:57:00

01:27:11:00

Soldado Miriam Q7: We also patrol the rural areas. / Because here at he border we have this problem with animal theft, / they steal sheep, cows. / This is also combined operation we do with the Rural Police.

01:27:33:00

01:27:46:00

Miguel Q2: There has never been a conflict since we have been living here. / They say that there was in the past but nothing big. /

01:27:59:02

01:28:03:00

Miguel Q1: It’s a spectacular place for us. / We don’t have any complaints. / The neighborhood is good. / We are a total brotherhood. For us, among us. / So I don’t have any trouble. I kept on working in Uruguay / because the job was better on the Uruguayan side. / But the coexistence among Uruguayans and Brazilians is the same. / It doesn’t change anything for us here.

01:28:31:00

01:28:35:00

Fabio Q2: What is border identity? / If you ask a border person if he is Brazilian or Uruguayan / he will respond, if he’s from a bi-national family, / he will say “I feel more Brazilian” / or “I feel more Uruguayan”. / When he says that he creates a measure. He is 60% Uruguayan or 60% Brazilian. / What does he mean? / He means that he carries 40% of Uruguayan or Brazilian identity. /

01:29:12:00

01:29:14:00

Mary Q4: Today, after 40 years living here, / I can see that I left many things. / We lose some of our identity. / I didn’t forget Spanish, I speak Spanish, I love Spanish. / It’s my first country only that today with so many years spent in Brazil, / it’s my second nation. So I’m a divided person because I have my family, my children, / my husband. / Everyone is here, my grandsons. / Today I feel like I’m more Brazilian. / And I left many traditions, many things in Uruguay. /

01:29:58:16

01:29:58:18

Fabio Q2: So you have here a human being from the border / that carries inside a unity among the two countries. / And it’s extremely cutting edge given our border world situation / where we have separations spaces, conflict spaces / and basically many belligerence spaces. /

01:30:25:00

01:30:28:00

Soldado Miriam Q9: We patrol the whole central area, we also patrol around the town squares, / we do it because of the kids that want to use illegal drugs, / so we stop it, so that our kids and for the people that want to be there don’t have any problems with these people.

01:30:51:00

01:30:51:05

Vilmar Q13: In our time there were almost no drugs. / It wasn’t there, it wasn’t known / // In my time it was really rare to say “He is a drug user”, very rare. / But nowadays you can see that drugs took over in an uncontrollable way in Brazil. /

Mary Q13: And in Uruguay as well

Vilmar Q13: In Uruguay as well

01:31:16:06

01:31:16:07

Fabio Q4: The biggest threat we have at the borders is organized crime. / When we talk about organized crime we are talking about gangs and above all weapons’ smuggling and drug trafficking. /

01:31:26:00

01:31:26:01

Soldado Miriam Q9: Because there, now there in Uruguay, marijuana is legal, / and because it's an open border people there think that they can just cross over here normally. / They are using it there, so they think they can come here and do the same. /

01:31:41:00

01:31:50:00

Fabio Q4: We do not consider organized crime that survival economy / which populations use in periods of crisis, / of buying a cheaper product here and selling it a little higher over there. / I would say that is a survival economy in which populations / take advantage of currency fluctuation to survive. / So it’s more like a state of need than a crime. / The real crime is the infiltration of illegal weapons and drugs.

01:32:22:22

“with support from the military and state police, as was done / through an army operation, which reduced a lot of the entry of drugs from Paraguay. / And we did that in 2011 and 2010.”

B Roll of RF soldiers checking car

01:32:22:23

Jobim Q10: I had a talk with the Rio Grande do Sul Security Secretary, / // and he told me that the amount of incoming weapons and drugs is very large, / and that much of the security problems that the states are experiencing / are problems stemming from territorial disputes between drug traffickers. / It’s brutal. / Then the only operations that could be done by the state police / are operations against small drug dealers, the guy who is at the end of the supply chain, / who sometimes is merely a deliveryman. / Because you see, in an economy / where the urban population can’t solve their income problems in a legal market, / through a job in a legal market, they try to get a state job, that is, to become a public servant. / When he doesn’t have either of these possibilities, / he ends up going into the informal economy. / He starts going to the traffic lights to clean cars, or manage forbidden parking lots on the street. / Now, when he doesn’t have this third possibility, he goes into crime. / He goes into common crime and then to organized crime. / So, we are putting these individuals in jail, / these guys who have gone to organized crime trying to solve their financial problems. / This does not solve the problem. The problem is at the beginning, the leader, / who is out of the country, by the way.

01:33:56:05

Agatha soldiers at checkpoint

01:33:56:06

Fabio Q4: We know that there are a lot of important people in favor of some regulation considering / that many states should admit their own defeat against combating drug trafficking. / It happened in Uruguay recently with the legalization and regulation of marijuana. / Not that Mujica, the president of Uruguay at that time, was in favor of marijuana consumption, that is not it. / It’s just that the situation, marijuana consumption, that shouldn’t be added to another problem, drug trafficking. / We had a few conflicts among some South American states, we still do. / However, the situation that really represents a threat to our borders is the absence of the state.

01:34:50:00

TRANSITION TO THE NORTH

Taking off from Manaus

Flyover amazon/GoPro

01:35:04:00

Gen Ferreira Q1: When we deal with the borders, we the State, has been present on the southern border / from the beginning of our colonization. / The increased attention to the issue of the northern frontier, / which is more focused on the Amazon, is something that / existed before these presidents /since the Calha Norte program // / So it is earlier.

01:35:27:00

Authorized by the Brazilian government in 1985, the Calha Norte Project sought to increase military presence, establish security, and develop the ecomonic potential of the Amazon region.

Flyover Amazon

01:36:09:00

Min Jobim Q3: The Amazon river is made from what we call incoming rivers. / In other words, rivers that come from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. / And those rivers form the Amazonian basin.

01:36:27:00

01:36:30:00

Min Jobim Q3: You look at the Amazon from above, considering what has been presented by the press, / and it looks like a beautiful thing. And it really is. / But for you to enter the forest you will face temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and up / with almost 100% humidity and all kinds of mosquitoes, especially on the right banks of the Amazon. / There are also elevations, with lots of Igarapés, that is, it’s not flat. / It is a ground with elevations, small elevations, with Igarapés everywhere and humidity. / So you can’t walk around there. // / So entrance to the Amazon / can only be effectively made through the rivers that originate in other countries. /

01:37:23:00

Land in San Gabriel

ID:

2^nd Jungle Brigade HQ

São Gabriel da Cachoeira

01:38:05:00

Gen Ferreira Q1: So it is still an area that has much to be discovered, / but it is natural that in the last governments, President Lula and President Dilma, there has been an increase in attention and resources. / Today we have thirty thousand soldiers in the region. / The number has been escalating for that entire period of time. / Effectively from the 2000s, / there has been a greater military presence, / with the transfer of military assets from the center-south of the country / to the north, or to the Amazon directly.

01:38:50:00

Arrive San Gabriel jungle brigade celebration

Troops Parade

01:38:55:00

Gen. Barros Briefing 21: We have coffee and water here for everyone. / Brazilian coffee, very strong. /

01:39:04:04

01:39:04:05

Gen. Barros Briefing 01: In the Amazon everything is exacerbated as I like to put it, / the problems, the solutions, and the use of military is different. /

01:39:15:00

Brigade sings O Brasil

01:39:23:00

Gen. Barros Briefing 01: The defense concept is a broader concept. / We have the National Defense Strategy that puts the Amazon as a priority /

01:39:36:00

Title Board:

The National Defense Strategy, articulated in 2008, focused on restucturing the country's defense industry while promoting development specifically in the Amazon region.

On the river to Cucui.

01:39:58:00

Andreza Q1: -My name is Andreza, I’m a journalist. / I live in Brasilia but I’m from the Amazon, / from a place called the Upper Rio Negro, / specifically the village of Cucuí // /

01:40:12:01

MAP

01:40:22:00

Andreza Q1: And I spent my childhood in this wonderful and very beautiful place.

01:40:27:00

Beautiful morning in Cucui

01:40:30:00

Andreza Q8: I still have family in Cucui. / Actually they are all family to everyone. Everyone is related. / But more closely I have an aunt there that is my mother’s sister and she is a teacher. / She has been there for many years. / And her husband Osmar is seen as a leader there.

01:40:59:10

ID Osmar Filho Cordeiro da Silva

01:40:59:11

Osmar Q8: So the whole story starts when “grandma,” my wife’s mother, Mrs. Catarina Acadena, / comes from Venezuela during a period / of political instability. / So she ends up / coming to this community on the border where today / we have the mark that divides the border between Venezuela and Colombia. /

01:41:27:01

Lt Rafael on boat on Rio Negro

01:41:42:00

Andreza Q7: So my grandmother, my mother’s mother, / She was from Venezuela, but of course she was a Brazilian Venezuelan. / She was born in Venezuela, on the border. /

01:41:53:10

Lt Rafael’s boat pulls up to shore at border mark

Andreza Q7: Her farmhouse was located exactly on the borderline between Brazil and Venezuela. / She was a Venezuelan public employee / and her job was to hoist the Venezuelan flag every day at 6am. // / And at 6pm she would take it down. / She was a very special and a well known person. / Not only on the Brazilian side but on the Venezuelan side. She was beloved by everyone in the region.

01:42:31:00

Lt Rafael with Mari at site of border marker

01:42:36:00

Osmar Q8: And after she passed away, my wife became the person to assume that role, / she also ended up residing here / out of necessity. // / And because of what Mrs. Catarina gave us, / we continue to maintain the space.

01:42:55:00

01:42:57:00

Osmar Q8: We always joke with Mari that it’s up to me / to maintain the Brazilian side and up to her to maintain the Venezuelan side.

01:43:08:00

01:43:48:00

Andreza Q3: In the beginning Cucuí was a small indigenous village. / So the Brazilian army arrived in the region / with a federal policy of protecting the borders / and they installed a platoon and sent people there. People from outside the area, from other places in Brazil. // / And then the village became a military environment. / There’s no way to escape that.

01:44:29:06

4^th PEF checkpoint near river’s edge

Underlined is missing from timeline.

01:44:32:00

Lt. Jean Rafael Checkpoint Q1: We are situated in the three-way border. / Here to the right, further to the east, we have Venezuela, / and to the left, further to the west, we have Colombia. / We receive boats coming from Colombia and from Venezuela. / Inside our territory we control people and material that enters our territory. /

01:44:54:19

Checking boats at Flower Island

Inside this mission we perform

01:44:58:00

Lt. Jean Rafael Checkpoint Q1: As the boat comes closer, / we approach it, / they automatically come up here to register into the system / that we have to gather basic qualifying information, / that way we have complete control / complete control of who is coming inside our territory. /  We also refer foreigners to the Federal Police, / and if they are foreign they have to report to the Federal Police in São Gabriel da Cachoeira. / The check is performed on material as well as people / because our mission here is to do the control, to combat smuggling and trafficking, / and border and environmental crimes as well. /

01:45:48:00

So I think there has to be a partnership between those two parts, / the community as well the Federal presence in the area. /

And so is the army, the Federal Police.

01:45:57:00

Andreza Q4: But certainly it is not so comfortable if you are travelling on your boat. / Imagine someone from that area, a “ribeirinho”, an indigenous in his boat, / going to visit his relatives across the border and all of a sudden he is stopped by people with guns / who inspect you from top to bottom. / It’s not a very comfortable situation if you are actually from that area. / So that could bring some tension, you know? / But I think it’s part of life / and as long as there is dialogue among the community and the army / I think things can get… each one can play their roles. / The community is there. The community also protects the border / because it’s Brazilians living there. /

01:46:43:00

01:46:44:00

Osmar Q7: Many indigenous will say that now I can’t maintain a certain family relationship / For because they are on the other side of the border. / For the indigenous there is no border when it comes to this.

01:47:04:02

01:47:04:03

Andreza Q4: It is a very delicate topic because in that area there weren’t any borders before. / The border was placed by the Brazilian State. / People from the Brazilian side are Brazilians / but they also have relatives that live across the border / that not necessarily, that are Colombians and Venezuelans, but that are still relatives. /

01:47:29:08

Soldiers at tent.

01:47:30:00

Andreza Q4: So I think there's no, I think that sometimes there is some tension, yes / but it’s totally comprehensible since the army is there to fulfill its role / of guarding the borders and of national sovereignty. / And I think that today the community better understands this role.

01:47:50:00

01:47:50:00

Lt. Jean Rafael: Where's Aldo? Is he sleeping?/ At this hour? How lazy! / Hey Alba!   //

01:48:03:00

Lt. Jean Rafael Q1:  We have an important role inside the community, / we are the presence of the state in the community. // / Our role here is to / deal with the community as best as we can, / the best way we can / so the community is always on our side.

01:48:22:00

01:48:22:00

Jean Rafael at med station: -What happened here guys?

-What happened?

-What happened?

Woman at med station: -My nephew suffered an accident.

Jean Rafael at med station: On a motorcycle?

Woman at med station: -No.

- An acai tree broke. Another boy was climbing an acai tree and he was holding it steady and the tree broke / and the tree broke and cut his leg. / His thigh.

Jean Rafael at med station: Did it hit the femoral artery? Was there a lot of blood?

Woman at med station: It opened it up.

Woman at med station 2: It opened it up.

01:48:52:17

01:48:52:20

Lt. Jean Rafael Q1: Sometimes when they have something they need, they will come to the Platoon // / Especially to the health department, / we have here the DSEI and the army. / The DSEI doesn't have a doctor here all the time, / but our doctor sees patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

01:48:12:00

01:49:12:10

Jean Rafael at med station: -He’s gonna be… he’s gonna be fine.

-He’s gonna be fine. All good?

Don’t get all worked up. He’s gonna wake up. He’s gonna be fine. You can relax.

01:49:23:23

If the school here wants to have an activity, / they come and ask the army with help for transport / of materials and help with decorating. /

01:49:23:24

Lt. Jean Rafael Q1: So health, we provide support for social activities in the school. /

01:49:29:00

01:49:29:11

Lt. Jean Rafael Q2: -We also provide water for the school//

01:49:32:00

Title Board: something about military dictatorship

01:49:34:00

Andreza Q3: / I remember when I was a child / my mother was a teacher in that school, / and she was even the Principal there. / And so she was subordinate to the Amazon Military Command / since it was they who, at that time, had a partnership with the State Military Government / who would supply the funding and transportation to the school. / So every decision made in the school had to be shared with the military. /

01:50:06:00

Man wheelbarrows water away

01:50:08:00

Lt. Jean Rafael Q1: So through all of these activities, / together with the community, we can gain the people’s trust / and have these people on our side for / matters that are in the army’s and the community’s best interests. /

01:50:28:00

Lt walks the streets of Cucui

01:50:33:00

Andreza Q3: Sometimes people think that it’s very tense because people come here from the outside, / but when they get here everything is different. / So there was a lot of harmony at that time. At least when I was a child. /

01:50:48:00

01:50:49:00

Jean Rafael: Hello. How are you?

Girl: Good.

01:50:53:00

Map of South America outlining the Special Boarder Platoons

01:50:55:00

 Fabio Q3: We have in Brazil, until recently, 29 Special Border Platoons / distributed along the northern Amazon  border, / with neighboring countries like the Guianas, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru. / What is in a Special Border Platoon? The following reality: / You have the Border Special Platoon and you have the community / where this Border Special Platoon is placed. / This community is an indigenous community of indigenous Brazilians.

01:51:26:12

On boat to Cucui

/that are subjected to the [5th] Battalion / but the mission is so important and so complex that the [2nd] Brigade command gets involved a lot. /

01:51:26:13

Gen Barros Briefing 09:

I want to say that only we do it this way. / You can see that inside this area of responsibility there are seven Special Border Platoons. / Their mission is to conduct surveillance. So you can see that they are on the major water entries. / The oldest one is Cucuí where you are going today. It’s from the 19th century. / And the rest of them, most of them are from the 80’s decade from last century / with the Calha Norte program of intensifying the presence on the borders.

01:52:11:00

Lt. Rafael gets ready to head out on boat

01:52:16:00

Jean Rafael at checkpoint: You can go down. You can go down.

01:52:19:00

Punctuation?

01:52:25:00

Gen Theophilo Q15:

What are the problems that we face in Cucui? / Mainly the contraband of gasoline, because gasoline in Venezuela is very cheap. / and it comes as a subsidy for cocaine based paste. / We know that in order to refine cocaine you need gasoline and other components. / So this is, in our case, the main problem found today.

01:52:45:00

01:52:55:00

Gen Barros Q2: We also have environmental crimes / and border crimes / like the problem with illegal mineral exploration. / So everything is literally connected. / That’s why we understand that / we have to fortify our actions around the border / and that will reflect positively, / especially in our big cities.

01:53:18:00

Arriving at Columbia border marker

01:53:23:00

Jean Rafael Checkpoint Q6: Here in Cucuí we have two monuments that mark the territorial division between / Brazil and Venezuela and Brazil and Colombia. /

01:53:33:00

01:53:36:00

Jean Rafael Checkpoint Q6: These border markers are not visited frequently, but they are visited by authorities.

01:53:43:00

01:53:43:10

Jean Rafael Checkpoint Q6: / Here when the water rises, the water goes to about right here. / When it rises, we raise the flag to attention. /The river rises a lot.

01:54:00:00

Manaus

01:54:22:00

Plinio Q4:

My dad, he was always the one that liked to walk around, to get to know the rivers, / and we were little so we went with him and since then we took after him. / He taught us how to navigate the river, everywhere.

01:54:45:00

“Drugs entered like flour. / They didn’t have a way of keeping track.”

01:54:46:00

Plinio Q12: The border of Peru and Columbia was one river, / and they took drugs from there like flour, / and it got all the way up here or it went to other countries. / But for every other country it had to go through Manaus. / Through Amazonas. /

01:55:21:00

Pulls boat out

01:55:23:00

Plinio Q1: This is where the ship used to anchor. / Then the rafts came around here and the wood all came / and the wood was left here and the drugs were put inside / so that the police wouldn’t find it and it was sealed, / with some sort of material that made it look good as if it was taken from the woods. / I walked around with my father and we used to see a lot of ships being loaded to go outside. / To go to other countries. / So this is the spot and the police got here and discovered / that the drugs came in through the joining of the waters and it got to here.

01:56:21:00

“The military police and the army, / and also the navy, / they are doing this combined work with the Federal Police, / so that nothing enters Brazil. // The environmental police also, / all of this is around the borders, / with Colombia, with Peru / and Venezuela. /Neighbors around us here, / the borders are well guarded. / Not much enters here. / / but nowadays it doesn't anymore.”

01:56:24:07

Plinio Q11: I saw on TV, / that in order for the drugs not to enter Brazil anymore, / they are patrolling the border. / // It’s not good for us to live around drugs, / knowing that from that point it’s all lost, there’s no way out. /

01:56:47:00

Shots of big cities

01:56:53:00

 Rubens Barbosa Q5: So a great amount of the violence existing in Brazil, / especially in Rio de Janeiro, is gang conflict, / between armed drug factions / and groups that operate and sell drugs, for area control. / Fighting the smuggling, decreasing the amount of weapons and drugs smuggled / is very important to contain that problem. /

01:57:32:00

01:57:33:00

Gen Theophilo Q11: The logistics for these come from the border. / We are neighbors with the three largest cocaine growers, / so it’s necessary that these neighboring countries, together with Brazil reinforce security on the borders. / Because this war, I always say that we are losing it.

01:57:45:09

5^th PEF Maturaca

NEED BROLL

Hospital in Sao Gabriel

01:57:58:00

Fabio Q3: The National Defense Strategy is that leitmotif / that gives defense sense to Brazil. And what does it say? / It says right in the beginning that / the defense strategy is a development strategy. / How to defend? By promoting development among local populations. / That’s why if the military acts there as a doctor or a dentist / he is acting towards defense using development strategy. /

01:58:32:00

NEED BROLL

01:58:35:00

Gen. Theophilo Q13: The relationship with the Indians is very important / we are even calling lieutenants that are anthropologist to teach us more about the origin, the culture of our / native brothers. / You saw that the Indians are called and they serve the Brazilian army as soldiers. / And they are the best soldiers that we have, because of the knowledge they have of the forest, / the way they survive in the forest, / so they were born there, they lived there and they will die there. /

01:59:05:00

01:59:11:00

Fabio Q3: How do these indigenous peoples relate to Brazil? / Their country, right? What relation do they have with the state? It is through the military. /

01:59:19:13

01:59:19:14

Gen. Barros Briefing 22: They are not Indian Brazilians, they are Brazilian Indians. / There is no such thing as a nation inside another nation. / The specificity and the culture has to be preserved and we are proud of it. /

01:59:36:17

01:59:48:00

Gen. Barros Briefing 23: Around 36% of our soldiers are indigenous. / Our goal is to have more than that and we have a special enlisting for the military service / that can’t be like it is in the South, / so we have to go along the river, because the indigenous soldier is not going to leave his community /for 3 or 4 days to go enlist in the army, his reality is not the same. / It’s a technique that we are using here for about two years where we go to the communities / to talk to the leaders of those communities and he will be the one to guide the soldiers through the process. /

02:00:31:00

back at Yanomami village

Yanomami Shaman

02:00:33:00

Seu Miguel Q3: I was a young man when this platoon got here. // Even my son was in the military / but he’s not anymore. /He still tells stories about when he was there.

02:00:58:00

02:00:58:02

Gen. Barros Briefing 23: This is very interesting to us because we are getting the indigenous people more involved with our nation. / The indigenous when he returns he will be a leader, // / and in the military aspect there are no better combatants than the Indigenous. /

02:01:17:00

02:01:19:00

Andreza Q10: The army really needs indigenous because they know the area. / They know everything, they know the rivers, they know the Igarapés. / They know all of it as a map in the palm of their hands. / And the army really needs this knowledge.

02:010:36:00

02:01:39:00

Seu Miguel Q5: We start teaching them to navigate when they are babies. / If you teach them, they will learn. / When they are two years old, one year old, / they start to navigate and they learn to dive and swim as well. / They learn fast.

02:02:15:00

02:02:29:00

Gen. Barros Q9: The army saying I think summarizes this very clearly / “Strong arm, / friendly hand” / and inside that is where you see the integration with the population. / When we support the sustainable economical and social / development of institutions / we are embracing the population / in a way, we are also doing defense, we are also doing intelligence, /we are putting our Brazilians on the borders, / making the borders more lively. / That's why these concepts are very connected and that's / why it's very important for us to be in/ this system of integration, / that is the face of our army here in the Amazon.

02:03:09:00

02:03:13:00

Fabio Q3: What will happen? Probably in the future / those 29 Special Border Platoons will become / 29 Brazilian cities.

02:03:27:00

MAP OF PEF LOCATIONS

NEW MUSIC

02:03:30:00

Fabio Q3: 29 Brazilian cities of basically indigenous populations. /

02:03:24:00

“So whoever is in a frontier squad is fulfilling a mission of guarding our borders // We have the internet, we have the communication, we have the television, we have Brazil in the squads for those populations that circulate to us.”

02:03:43:00

Gen Ferreira Q10: The Special Border Platoons have a very special characteristic. / They have the task of developing our borders. / // The presence of the border platoon means education, / it means the health, and in general it means the infrastructure / brought to those Brazilians living near the platoons, will give them better quality of life. // / So the daily task for the platoon is to bring Brazil to the Brazilians at the border.

02:04:21:00

Flying over the Amazon

02:04:21:19

Min Jobim Q17: Brazil strengthening its borders has no military value. / First, it’s a defense argument, not an offensive strategy.  / We needed to make some statements especially regarding Amazônia. / The rule was Amazônia was Brazilian Amazônia. Who takes care of Amazônia is Brazil for the world’s well being. / The thesis sustained by Mitterrand in France, the French Left Party, / was that there should be an internationalization of Amazônia because it was the world’s lung. / No, Amazônia is Brazilian. Brazil will take care of Amazônia / with Brazilian people, for the world’s sake. /

02:05:00:06

02:05:00:07

Gen. Barros Q11: The Amazon is a very important heritage / and we know the repercussions for the world, if we don't take care of it. / The world is globalized, we know that. / But the Brazilian state, the Brazilian people and the Brazilian citizen / are the most capable to take care of the Amazon. // / Could we do it differently? / Of course it could, but this is our way, our way of doing things. /

02:05:30:06

02:05:30:07

Fabio Q7: The Brazilian Amazon, from the development point of view, is practically being constructed by the State at this very moment. / Some people complain about the presence of the military, but I would like to see who is willing to go there / to face the challenges of State’s revitalization on the Amazon border. / It is not for the weak.

02:05:52:00

Conclusion

Go back to RF raids near Foz

Or

Montage of what we have seen so far in the film?

02:06:03:00

Min Jobim Q4: So you see, the problem of the South American borders does not concern the relations between countries. / They concern the illegal use of the borders by drug traffickers. / So it is a common interest. /

02:06:18:00

02:06:23:20

Gen Ferreira Q4: This enormous frontier that we have to allow, as we say, / a certain vulnerability deserves attention, / and this attention is given because / the trafficking of arms, smuggling, drug trafficking, / this is a real issue worldwide. / And we must not forget that Brazil is paying attention to this matter.

02:06:51:00

02:06:52:00

Rubens Barbosa Q15:  Currently the Brazilian government has met the foreign ministers / of the other countries to build broader cooperation. / Brazil has asked for support from those countries because / it’s not only about defending the borders. Those countries have to curb illegal practices. / It has to be curbed where they grow the drugs. / All of it is in the Amazonian area.

02:07:21:23

02:07:22:00

Jobim Q10: So, you need to have a strategic policy, and this policy has been made in partnership with South America. / But you need more operations and even more federal police / to focus on drugs at the Brazilian borders.  /

02:07:38:00

20:07:39:00

Gen Theophilo Q11:

We are neighbors with the three largest cocaine growers // / We don’t think that we are going to end the drug trafficking, because it’s a very profitable business // / But we have to try to reduce it, try to fight it because what is happening today is a war that we are losing. /

02:07:54:00

Take a look even to the languages, where Portugal ends, where Spain begins. / When we stop speaking Portuguese and we start speaking Spanish. / Then you are in France and they speak French. / You are in Italy and they speak Italian. / For us it’s Portuguese and Spanish and several linguistic borders among Amazonian indigenous.

02:08:07:00

Fabio Q6: There are a few movements that tend to say that / the border is a problem. / That a border is a flaw from mankind to be overcame. / And I always joke saying, “who likes a world without borders?”. / Maybe it is companies that don’t want to pay taxes and don’t want to go through customs. / And it is the smugglers and drug dealers. // / Some even say that if you catch a plane / and look down on the earth you won’t see the borders. / Of course you won’t. / Borders are political creations. Borders are cultural creations. / But what are they for? To affirm diversity. /

02:08:51:00

02:08:55:00

 Andreza Q8: Our ties are there. Our roots are there. / And it’s a place we will never forget and I hope to be back there someday to see everyone again // In my opinion we become more important knowing that we came from that place. / We are very proud to be from the border. And we speak proudly about it.

02:09:23:00

02:09:26:00

Osmar Q8: Today we keep going, for example I have been here in Cucuí for more than 30 years and I can find a reason for me / not to be here in Cucuí, but a person that has his origins at the place that he was conceived, this is a kind of obligation. /

02:09:54:00

Well, what does the border mean? The border is that space / where one ecosystem ends and another one begins. / Where a peoples’ culture ends and a new one begins. / //

02:10:00:00

Fabio Q6: So the border, what is it? / It’s a demarcation among differences, / geographical differences, language differences, people differences. / So what is the problem? / The problem is when this difference is forced from the outside to the inside / Those places where a State was created but it was created according to the colonizer mindset / and not according to the people that used to live there. That’s why today / borders are still being redrawn. / That’s why new States are still being built. / Having said that, in my opinion the border is a space that defines this diversity and it’s a space of beauty. /

02:10:49:04

Fronteira da Grandeza

01:24:17:00

Boat to Cucui stops to refuel

Boat Pilot 1: The lieutenant just got here.

Boat Pilot 2: So you're just gonna fill that up?

Boat Pilot 1: Fill it up and then we’ll get more from over there.

Boat Pilot 2: Fill it up to there?

Boat Pilot 1: Yes fill it up. And the rest is just gonna stay in here.

“The river is very good to navigate… / to navigate because we also live off of the river”

Plinio Q7: The nature of the river, / it produces so much for us. / We have gill nets here. / The gill nets catch the fish we eat. / Everything produces, in land and in water. // / We live of off the water. / Without it we can’t live.