Service members of the Americas joined the Brazilian Armed Forces to support victims of the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, which left more than 160 people dead and more than 580,000 displaced. “Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are cooperating directly with Joint Operation Taquari 2,” the Social Communication Section of Operation Taquari 2, formed by members of the Brazilian Army, Navy, and Air Force in response to the crisis, told Diálogo.
“The first phase of the operation was an emergency phase to rescue people. Now we’re in a stabilization phase, with people trying to return to their homes,” Army General Tomás Miguel Miné Ribeiro Paiva, commander of the Brazilian Army (EB), said on EB’s YouTube Channel on May 21.
Help from Argentina
During this stabilization phase, the Argentine Army’s 601st Engineer Group has been helping with one of the main needs of the population affected by the rains: access to drinking water.
“The Argentine Army has sent eight soldiers specialized in engineering to work on water purification. The purification plant, installed and operating at the Canoas Air Base, is operated by the Argentine military,” said the Social Communication Section of Operation Taquari 2.
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Together, the two purifiers installed by the Argentine soldiers can produce 3,600 liters of drinking water per hour, Brazilian TV channel Band reported. Part of the production is used to supply the field hospitals set up by the Brazilian Army. “The Argentinian soldiers will stay in Brazil indefinitely, carrying out this mission and others. They are all engineers and will help rebuild roads, for example,” Band reported.
This is not the first time that this Argentine contingent has provided humanitarian aid to other countries. Its members also took water treatment plants to Bolivia during the floods in 2007 and sent water trucks to help fight fires in Chile in 2022. “In this sense, the 601 Water Engineers Company, which offers training to personnel from the armies of Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, among other partner countries, is a pioneer in the region,” the Argentine Army said in a May 9 statement.
The Argentine government also offered Brazil a Hercules C-130 to transport people and cargo, but the aircraft could not be received due to logistics operation limitations at the Canoas and Santa Maria air bases, the Taquari 2 Operation Command told Diálogo.
Uruguay and Chile
The Uruguayan Air Force (FAU) sent a helicopter to transport food, supplies, and medicine to flood victims. “The Bell 212 FAU 035 helicopter carried out its first mission in Campinas del Sur today, supporting the affected areas,” the FAU said on May 15. “We remain committed to our mission of assistance and support in these critical times.”
The Chilean Air Force (FACH) sent a DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft to support logistics transportation. “To date, the FACH crews have carried out five missions, transporting more than 5 tons of humanitarian aid cargo in direct support of the Brazilian Air Force and the inhabitants of the neighboring country, in the struggle to overcome the emergency,” the FACH said in a May 20 statement.
Chilean Air Force Major Gonzalo Silva, commander of the Chilean mission, said that his troops were “working hard to continue supporting” the crisis in Brazil. “We are available to continue carrying out the necessary missions, in which the air environment is essential,” Maj Silva said in the statement.
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Thousands rescued
The Brazilian Armed Forces have rescued tens of thousands of people and animals in some 460 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul, as part of Operation Taquari 2. More than 32,000 service members and police officers deployed for this operation, as well as 4,800 vehicles, 60 aircraft, 430 boats, eight multitask ships, 12 field hospitals, and 250 pieces of engineering equipment.
Service members distributed tons of meals, food, and medicine, while collecting debris from the streets and roads, allowing people and vehicles to circulate. On May 19, the FAB carried out a major aeromedical evacuation: a C-105 Amazonas aircraft from the Onça Squadron transported five major trauma patients from Rio Grande to Canoas.
“The city of Rio Grande is flooded, and the hospital is very compromised. So, the evacuation, especially of the children, had to be immediate,” Captain Vinicius Guimarães Tinoco Ayres, an FAB doctor, said in a statement. “Due to the structure of the roads and the seriousness of [the children’s] health, the best option was air transportation.”
U.S. Navy
In late May, the Brazilian Navy (MB) and their counterparts from the U.S. Navy (USN) joined forces in support of flood victims. The USN aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73), which arrived in Rio de Janeiro on May 20 as part of exercise Southern Seas 2024, helped transport 15 tons of food, animal feed, and hygiene and cleaning products, donations collected and stored by the MB.
Some 110 km off the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, helicopters from both navies hoisted the goods from the USS George Washington to the MB’s Multipurpose aircraft carrier NAM Atlântico, which is in the region providing humanitarian assistance.
“The U.S. Navy was passing along the Brazilian coast. The ships were in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and they offered us their support to join forces in this mobilization that exists to face the catastrophe in the south,” Rear Admiral Nelson Leite, commander of MB’s First Fleet Division, told Brazil’s TV Globo program Jornal Nacional.
“This helps to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the Brazilian Navy and the U.S. Navy, and to reinforce the 200 years of diplomatic relations that exist between the two countries,” Rear Adm. Leite said.