"Naval Operations Across South American Rivers: The “Other” Theater of Operations"
Wilder Alejandro Sanchez
The Southern Tide
Center for International Maritime Security
29 September
Originally published: https://cimsec.org/naval-operations-across-south-american-rivers-the-other-theater-of-operations/
When
thinking about navies, there is a natural tendency to focus on
operations in the open sea and the role of carriers, frigates, and
submarines. However, aside from protecting their territorial waters and
exclusive economic zones, South American navies have another equally
important theater of operation: inland water bodies like lakes and
rivers.
The
recently concluded riverine exercises ACRUX X and BRACOLPER and even
last year’s UNITAS 2021 demonstrate the importance that regional navies
place on inland bodies of water and riverine populations. Activities
carried out by local navies, not to mention other armed services,
including defense/security operations, combating crimes (illegal mining
and smuggling are significant problems in the region), search and
rescue, and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operations. In South
America, the armed forces help extend the reach of the state to areas
where civilian agencies do not operate; navies utilize rivers as a
system of complex highways via which they can move and operate just as
efficiently as in the open sea.
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