Mowag armoured vehicles deployed in Rio’s favelas

Goods category: War materiel

Mowag Piranha deployed in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

Mowag Piranhas exported for Brazil’s UN mission in Haiti were later deployed in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In 2015, Vitor Borges was seriously injured by shots fired from one such vehicle; he suffered an amputation and paraplegia. Lighthouse Reports also documents Operation São Francisco in 2014–2015, which left 15 people dead, including Jefferson Rodrigues. Swiss end-use inspections in 2014 and 2019 raised no objections to this use. In 2020, police killed 6’416 people across Brazil, including 1’245 in the state of Rio de Janeiro. According to the Swiss Federal Audit Office report published in 2018, only eleven of 26 Piranha armoured vehicles could be verified during the 2014 end-use inspection.

Effect of the proposed War Materiel Act revision

Under the new Article 22b, the Federal Council could depart from all the licensing criteria in Article 22a under vaguely defined ‘exceptional circumstances’. The public would not have to be informed. The Federal Council could add Brazil to Annex 2 by amending the War Materiel Ordinance. This would remove the exclusion criterion based on participation in an armed conflict and make approval the rule. The Federal Council could refuse a licence only in exceptional cases. Article 18 paragraph 1 would abolish non-re-export declarations in the vast majority of cases. Weapons for Brazil could thus easily be supplied through a subsidiary or intermediary in a third country. France could serve as a third country, having, according to SIPRI, supplied substantial quantities of war materiel to Brazil in recent years (1’475 million TIV).

Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

Mowag armoured vehicles deployed in Rio’s favelas

Effect of the proposed War Materiel Act revision

Countries

Conflicts

Companies

Time period

Sources