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Special Operations Command (Brazil)

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The Special Operations Command ( Portuguese : Comando de Operações Especiais - C Op Esp) is part of the Brazilian Army commands, specifically under the Land Army Command. Headquartered in Central Brazil, in Goiânia , C Op Esp operates under the larger Planalto Military Command . It is specifically linked to the Terrestrial Operations Command (COTER). Its motto is "any mission, in any place, at any time, by every means".

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57-640: C Op Esp was established in 1957 as a parachute rescue group that conducted deep forest rescue operations. Special operations were then disbanded for much of the 20th century, but in 2003, the Presidential Decree No. 4.289 created the Special Operations Brigade that Brazil employs today. In 2013, the ordinance of Army Commander 142 changed the brigade's designation to Special Operations Command (C Op Esp). The Special Operations Brigade originally traces its roots back to 1957. Originally, they were

114-502: A guerrillera ( [geriˈʎeɾa] ) if female. Arthur Wellesley adopted the term "guerrilla" into English from Spanish usage in 1809, to refer to the individual fighters (e.g., "I have recommended to set the Guerrillas to work"), and also (as in Spanish) to denote a group or band of such fighters. However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes a specific style of warfare. The use of

171-597: A rebellion , in a violent conflict , in a war or in a civil war to fight against regular military , police or rival insurgent forces. Although the term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of the Peninsular War in the 19th century, the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th century BC , Sun Tzu proposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics in The Art of War . The 3rd century BC Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus

228-601: A number of strategies to eliminate its enemies capabilities. Deploying its forces deep in enemy territory, including to the very rear of the enemy, is one of the many strategies C Op Esp employs. Some of C Op Esp's top level capabilities include; covert reconnaissance on the battlefield, the ability to perform search, destruction, neutralization and interdiction of targets of significant value, perform guided air strikes, rescue allies and high value targets, kidnap enemy personnel, and conduct operations classified as non conventional warfare. One of C Op Esp's most valuable capabilities

285-400: A parachute trained rescue team that conducted deep forest rescues. Today C Op Esp is a highly specialized and dynamic fighting force that operates all over Brazil. C Op Esp is trained in non conventional warfare, which means it is ready for any type of fight, against any fighting force. C Op Esp is trained to deal with much larger forces, they typically operate in small teams. The C Op Esp uses

342-456: A raid on Saint-Nazaire – and the Dieppe Raid , which was a large scale raid employing about 6,000 soldiers, over 200 ships and 74 squadrons of aircraft intended to take and hold Dieppe sufficiently to cause sufficient destruction to the port. Paratroopers and glider -borne troops have been landed by aircraft on raids, including offensive counter-air missions such as those carried out by

399-463: A special mission assigned to any regular troops . Raids are often a standard tactic in irregular warfare , employed by warriors , guerrilla fighters or other irregular military forces. Some raids are large, for example the Sullivan Expedition . The purposes of a raid may include: Among many tribal societies, raiding was the most common and lethal form of warfare. Taking place at night,

456-511: A target and then disappeared into civilian crowds frustrated the British enemy. The best example of this occurred on Bloody Sunday (21 November 1920), when Collins's assassination unit, known as "The Squad" , wiped out a group of British intelligence agents ("the Cairo Gang ") early in the morning (14 were killed, six were wounded) – some regular officers were also killed in the purge. That afternoon,

513-500: Is a military tactic or operational warfare " smash and grab " mission which has a specific purpose. Raiders do not capture and hold a location, but quickly retreat to a previous defended position before enemy forces can respond in a coordinated manner or formulate a counter-attack. Raiders must travel swiftly and are generally too lightly equipped and supported to be able to hold ground. A raiding group may consist of combatants specially trained in this tactic, such as commandos , or as

570-576: Is also a type of irregular warfare : that is, it aims not simply to defeat an invading enemy, but to win popular support and political influence, to the enemy's cost. Accordingly, guerrilla strategy aims to magnify the impact of a small, mobile force on a larger, more cumbersome one. If successful, guerrillas weaken their enemy by attrition , eventually forcing them to withdraw. Tactically, guerrillas usually avoid confrontation with large units and formations of enemy troops but seek and attack small groups of enemy personnel and resources to gradually deplete

627-676: Is also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare through what is today called the Fabian strategy , and in China Peng Yue is also often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare has been used by various factions throughout history and is particularly associated with revolutionary movements and popular resistance against invading or occupying armies. Guerrilla tactics focus on avoiding head-on confrontations with enemy armies, typically due to inferior arms or forces, and instead engage in limited skirmishes with

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684-423: Is often used as political propaganda by belligerents (most often by governments in power) to denounce opponents whose status as terrorists is disputed. While the primary concern of guerrillas is the enemy's active military units, actual terrorists largely are concerned with non-military agents and target mostly civilians. Attribution: Raid (military) Raiding , also known as depredation ,

741-454: Is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection . Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements. Guerrilla warfare is a type of asymmetric warfare : competition between opponents of unequal strength. It

798-621: Is the ability to deter and destroy guerilla groups . C Op Esp has dealt with guerilla groups before, and is specially trained to move the group into a larger fighting force such as the Brazilian Army. This strategy in turn leads to the destruction of the guerrilla group. Another valuable capability that C Op Esp excels in is counterinsurgency and counterterrorism . Operations of this type include; rescuing hostages of any type, neutralization of explosives and other weapons used by terrorists, monitoring and spying on terrorist groups. The C Op Esp

855-685: Is the main arm of the Rapid Action Force which is supplemented by the following units: Brigade Parachute Infantry, 12th Light Infantry Brigade (Aeromovel) and the Army Aviation Squadron. The Rapid Action Force is a national force, capable of operating in the Amazon as well as the Pampas in the south. Equipped with the most technologically advanced equipment available to the Brazilian Military ,

912-761: The Austronesian ethnic groups in Island Southeast Asia that converted to Islam shortly before and during the Colonial Era . However, unlike pre-colonial raids, these raids were specifically to acquire slaves . Unlike the pre-colonial practices of indentured servitude (like in alipin ) which was more a temporary form of punishment, captives from these more recent raids followed the Islamic practice of chattel slavery . They had little chances of returning to their home settlements, unless ransomed, and were instead sold on

969-581: The Crossbarry Ambush in March 1921 are the most famous examples of Barry's flying columns causing large casualties to enemy forces. The Algerian Revolution of 1954 started with a handful of Algerian guerrillas. Primitively armed, the guerrillas fought the French for over eight years. This remains a prototype for modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, terrorism, torture, and asymmetric warfare prevalent throughout

1026-638: The First Raid on Banu Thalabah , a tribe already aware of the impending attack. So they lay in wait for the Muslims, and when Muhammad ibn Maslamah arrived at the site, 100 men of the Banu Thalabah ambushed them, while the Muslims were making preparation to sleep, and after a brief resistance killed all of Muhammad ibn Maslamah's men. Muhammad ibn Maslamah pretended to be dead. A Muslim who happened to pass that way found him and assisted him to return to Medina. The raid

1083-814: The Maratha Kingdom , pioneered the Shiva sutra or Ganimi Kava (Guerrilla Tactics) to defeat the many times larger and more powerful armies of the Mughal Empire . Kerala Varma (Pazhassi Raja) (1753–1805) used guerrilla techniques chiefly centred in mountain forests in the Cotiote War against the British East India Company in India between 1793 and 1806. Arthur Wellesley (in India 1797–1805) had commanded forces assigned to defeat Pazhassi's techniques but failed. It

1140-688: The Mongol invasion of Central Asia . Examples of lesser scale raids include those staged by the Cossacks of the Zaporizhian Sich , the Grande Armée , and cavalry raids that took place during the American Civil War such as Morgan's Raid , and numerous examples of small group raids behind enemy lines that have taken place throughout all periods of history. In the operational level of war , raids were

1197-777: The Rif War in 1920. For the first time in history, tunnel warfare was used alongside modern guerrilla tactics, which caused considerable damage to both the colonial armies in Morocco. In the early 20th century Michael Collins and Tom Barry both developed many tactical features of guerrilla warfare during the guerrilla phase of the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence . Collins developed mainly urban guerrilla warfare tactics in Dublin City (the Irish capital). Operations in which small Irish Republican Army (IRA) units (3 to 6 guerrillas) quickly attacked

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1254-920: The Royal Irish Constabulary force consisting of both regular RIC personnel and the Auxiliary Division took revenge, shooting into a crowd at a football match in Croke Park , killing fourteen civilians and injuring 60 others. In West County Cork , Tom Barry was the commander of the IRA West Cork brigade . Fighting in west Cork was rural, and the IRA fought in much larger units than their fellows in urban areas. These units, called " flying columns ", engaged British forces in large battles, usually for between 10 – 30 minutes. The Kilmichael Ambush in November 1920 and

1311-857: The Teishin Shudan and Giretsu Kuteitai commandos. In the modern era, the helicopter, allowing for both insertion and extraction, offers a superior method of raid transportation, although it comes at the cost of noise. During the Second World War, several air-landed raids were undertaken, including the German glider-borne raid on Fort Eben-Emal in Belgium in 1940, and the British Operation Colossus and Operation Biting , which were raids in Italy and France in 1941 and 1942. The Royal Air Force first used

1368-561: The Visayans . Participating in or defending against these raids were part of the duties of the noble ( maginoo ) and warrior castes (like the timawa and maharlika ). The main purpose of the raids were to gain prestige in combat, to pillage , and to capture hostages. Participation and prowess in these raids were recorded in the widespread practice of full-body tattooing ( batok ). Raids were usually seaborne, and coastal communities had sentinels that watch for possible raids. When spotted, it

1425-425: The diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state. Prehistoric tribal warriors presumably employed guerrilla-style tactics against enemy tribes: Primitive (and guerrilla) warfare consists of war stripped to its essentials: the murder of enemies; the theft or destruction of their sustenance, wealth, and essential resources; and

1482-671: The slave markets . These kinds of raids were especially prevalent in the Sulu and Celebes Seas and has continued into modern-day piracy. In the early Middle Ages , Viking raiders from Scandinavia attacked the British Isles , France and Spain , attacking coastal and riverside targets. Much Viking raiding was carried out as a private initiative with a few ships, usually to gain loot, but much larger fleets were also involved, often as intent on extorting protection money (English: Danegeld ) as looting and pillaging. Raiding did not cease with

1539-532: The 19th century: ...our troops should...fight while protected by the terrain...using small, mobile guerrilla units to exhaust the enemy...denying them rest so that they only control the terrain under their feet. More recently, Mao Zedong's On Guerrilla Warfare , Che Guevara 's Guerrilla Warfare , and Lenin's Guerrilla warfare , were all written after the successful revolutions carried out by them in China, Cuba and Russia, respectively. Those texts characterized

1596-682: The Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary and civilians during the Bangladesh Liberation War that transformed East Pakistan into Bangladesh in 1971. An earlier name Mukti Fauj was also used. The growth of guerrilla warfare was inspired in part by theoretical works on guerrilla warfare, starting with the Manual de Guerra de Guerrillas by Matías Ramón Mella written in

1653-967: The Dutch executed the Raid on the Medway during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the Dutch Raid on North America during the Third Anglo-Dutch War . During the Second World War, the British set up the Combined Operations Headquarters to organise harassing raids against the Germans in Europe. The first operation conducted by a "commando" formation, known as Operation Ambassador , took place in July 1940, but it

1710-563: The Fabian choice. The Roman general Quintus Sertorius is also noted for his skillful use of guerrilla warfare during his revolt against the Roman Senate . In China, Han dynasty general Peng Yue is often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare due to his use of irregular warfare in the Chu-Han contention to attack Chu convoys and supplies. In the medieval Roman Empire , guerrilla warfare

1767-523: The Rapid Action Force is proficient in land, water, and air operations. During MINUSTAH , a force of around 20 men from the 1st Special Forces Battalion and 1st Commando Actions Battalion made up the Destacamento de Operações de Paz (Peace Operations Detachment) or Dopaz, a special operations unit responsible for high-risk missions such as special reconnaissance and direct action against leaderships of Haitian gangs and paramilitary groups, as well as leading

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1824-679: The UN raids on neighbourhoods such as Bel Air, Cité Militaire and Cité Soleil from 2005 to 2007. According to Brazilian SF General Sergio Schwingel, Dopaz's role in Haiti led to the UN creating a doctrine for the usage of special forces in peacekeeping operations worldwide. Recently, Brazilian Special Forces have taken part in domestic and international operations. During the 2016 Rio Olympics , Brazilian Special forces provided security teams for events, and conducted covert operations in order to thwart any possible attacks on

1881-748: The decline of the Viking threat in the 11th century. It remained a common element of the medieval naval warfare. Extensive naval raiding was carried out by all sides during the Hundred Years War , often involving privateers such as John Hawley of Dartmouth or the Castilian Pero Niño . In the Mediterranean, raiding using oared galleys was common throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance and

1938-542: The defeat of their regular armies, the Spanish and Portuguese people successfully rose against the Napoleonic troops and defeated a highly superior army using the guerrilla strategy in combination with a scorched earth policy and people's war (see also attrition warfare against Napoleon ). In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a guerrilla unit is a guerrillero ( [geriˈʎeɾo] ) if male, or

1995-517: The devastation of whole regions, such as that carried out by the Black Prince in Southern France in 1355 . This last is notable not just for its success and scope but the fact that the raiders deliberately captured records in order to carry out a post-operational analysis of the impact of the raid on the enemy economy. The largest raids in history were the series undertaken during and following

2052-536: The earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare. This inspired developments in modern guerrilla warfare. In the 3rd century BC, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus , used elements of guerrilla warfare, such as the evasion of battle, the attempt to wear down the enemy, to attack small detachments in an ambush and devised the Fabian strategy , which the Roman Republic used to great effect against Hannibal 's army, see also His Excellency : George Washington :

2109-603: The enemy retreats, we pursue." At least one author credits the ancient Chinese work The Art of War with inspiring Mao's tactics. In the 20th century, other communist leaders, including North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh , often used and developed guerrilla warfare tactics, which provided a model for their use elsewhere, leading to the Cuban " foco " theory and the anti- Soviet Mujahadeen in Afghanistan . Guerrilla groups may use improvised explosive devices and logistical support by

2166-602: The future. The Normans often made many forays into Wales, where the Welsh used the mountainous region, which the Normans were unfamiliar with, to spring surprise attacks upon them. Since the Enlightenment , ideologies such as nationalism , liberalism , socialism , and religious fundamentalism have played an important role in shaping insurgencies and guerrilla warfare. In the 17th century, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj , founder of

2223-635: The games. These domestic operations were conducted by the special operations police force of the Brazilian Military . Special forces played a key role in the 2018 federal intervention . Troops collected arrests and deaths of criminals. COpEsp is structured by the following subordinate units: Guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military , such as rebels, partisans , paramilitary personnel or armed civilians including recruited children , use ambushes , sabotage , terrorism , raids , petty warfare or hit-and-run tactics in

2280-437: The goal of exhausting adversaries and forcing them to withdraw (see also attrition warfare ). Organized guerrilla groups often depend on the support of either the local population or foreign backers who sympathize with the guerrilla group's efforts. The Spanish word guerrilla is the diminutive form of guerra ("war"); hence, "little war". The term became popular during the early-19th century Peninsular War , when, after

2337-557: The goal was to catch the enemy sleeping to avoid casualties to the raiding party. Cattle raiding was a major feature of Irish society in the Iron Age and forms the central plot of the historical epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (English: Cattle Raid of Cooley ). The traditional habit of Bedouin tribes of raiding other tribes, caravans, or settlements is known in Arabic as ghazzu . Such activity

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2394-524: The inducement in them of insecurity and terror. It conducts the basic business of war without recourse to ponderous formations or equipment, complicated maneuvers, strict chains of command, calculated strategies, timetables, or other civilized embellishments. Evidence of conventional warfare , on the other hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu , in his The Art of War (6th century BC), became one of

2451-409: The latter of which had recolonized the country 17 years after its independence. The war resulted in the withdrawal of Spanish forces and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic. The Moroccan military leader Abd el-Krim ( c.  1883 – 1963) and his father unified the Moroccan tribes under their control and took up arms against the Spanish and French occupiers during

2508-593: The local population. The opposing army may come at last to suspect all civilians as potential guerrilla backers. The guerrillas might get political support from foreign backers and many guerrilla groups are adept at public persuasion through propaganda and use of force. Some guerrilla movements today also rely heavily on children as combatants, scouts, porters, spies, informants, and in other roles. Many governments and states also recruit children within their armed forces. No commonly accepted definition of "terrorism" has attained clear consensus. The term "terrorism"

2565-409: The opposing force while minimizing their own losses. The guerrilla prizes mobility, secrecy, and surprise, organizing in small units and taking advantage of terrain that is difficult for larger units to use. For example, Mao Zedong summarized basic guerrilla tactics at the beginning of the Chinese Civil War as: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack;

2622-463: The people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery. In the 1960s, the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara developed the foco (Spanish: foquismo ) theory of revolution in his book Guerrilla Warfare , based on his experiences during the 1959 Cuban Revolution . This theory was later formalized as "focal-ism" by Régis Debray . Its central principle

2679-495: The precursors in the development of the Operational Manoeuvre Groups in the Soviet Army as early as the 1930s. Raiding by sea was known at the time of the Pharaohs , when the shipborne forces of the Sea Peoples caused serious disruption to the economies of the eastern Mediterranean . In pre-colonial thalassocracies in the islands of the Philippines , sea raids ( mangayaw ) and land wars ( mangubat ), were regular seasonal activities by warring polities, particularly among

2736-406: The tactic of guerrilla warfare as, according to Che Guevara 's text, being "used by the side which is supported by a majority but which possesses a much smaller number of arms for use in defense against oppression". Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of

2793-443: The world today. In South Africa , African National Congress (ANC) members studied the Algerian War, prior to the release and apotheosis of Nelson Mandela ; in their intifada against Israel, Palestinian fighters have sought to emulate it. Additionally, the tactics of Al-Qaeda closely resemble those of the Algerians. The Mukti Bahini (Bengali: মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as "freedom fighters", or liberation army), also known as

2850-411: Was a small-scale operation that resulted in negligible success. The next major raid was Operation Claymore , which was launched in March 1941 against the Lofoten Islands . Throughout the war there were many other operations of varied size, ranging from small scale operations like those undertaken by Z Special Unit against the Japanese in the Pacific, such as Project Opossum , to Operation Chariot –

2907-460: Was during the caravan raids , and his first successful raid was the Nakhla raid . In January 624 Muhammad ordered this raid to attack a Quraysh caravan and gather information. During the Invasion of Thi Amr he ordered a raid on the Banu Muharib and Banu Talabah tribes after he received intelligence that they were allegedly going to raid the outskirts of Medina . One person was captured by Muslims during this raid. In August 627 he ordered

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2964-515: Was frequently practiced between the eighth through tenth centuries along the eastern frontier with the Umayyad and then Abbasid caliphates. Tactics involved a heavy emphasis on reconnaissance and intelligence, shadowing the enemy, evacuating threatened population centres, and attacking when the enemy dispersed to raid. In the later tenth century this form of warfare was codified in a military manual known by its later Latin name as De velitatione bellica ('On Skirmishing') so it would not be forgotten in

3021-405: Was particularly a feature of the wars between the Christian powers and the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Raiding formed a major component of English naval strategy in the Elizabethan era, with attacks on the Spanish possessions in the New World . A major raid on Cadiz to destroy shipping being assembled for the Spanish Armada was carried out by Sir Francis Drake in 1587. Similarly

3078-564: Was preferable for the defenders to meet the attackers at sea in ship-to-ship combat ( bangga ) rather than engage them on land. The raids had strict codes of conduct on the treatment of captives. People who surrendered were spared, to be ransomed or to work under temporary indentured servitude as alipin then set free. Anyone who kills a captive is required to pay their value, or risk becoming an alipin themselves. Higher-ranked captives were treated well and were usually ransomed by relatives. The practice of seaborne raids also continued among

3135-467: Was still noticed by J. S. Buckingham in 1820s Palestine not only among nomadic Bedouin, but also among the nominally sedentary villagers of er-Riha (Jericho), who left the little land cultivation he observed to women and children, while men spent most of their time riding through the plains and engaging in "robbery and plunder", their main and most profitable activity. The Islamic prophet Muhammad made frequent use of raiding tactics. His first use of raids

3192-432: Was the longest war waged by East India Company during their military campaigns on the Indian subcontinent. It was one of the bloodiest and hardest wars waged by East India Company in India with Presidency army regiments that suffered losses as high as eighty percent in 10 years of warfare. The Dominican Restoration War was a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in the Dominican Republic between nationalists and Spain ,

3249-474: Was unsuccessful. Small scale raiding warfare was common in Western European warfare of the Middle Ages . Much of a professional soldiers' time could be spent in "little war", carrying out raids or defending against them. Typical of this style of warfare was the mounted raid or chevauchée , popular during the Hundred Years War . Chevauchées varied in size from a few hundred men to armies of thousands, and could range in scope from attacks on nearby enemy areas to

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