ABSTRACT
Two other pillars of the Brazilian military regime are almost immune to the new political winds in the country: the formal Secretariat General of the National Security Council (CSN) and the large informal group of reserve military officers occupying civilian positions in the federal public administration. The Secretariat-General of the CSN is a vast bureaucratic complex with a double function. The intervention by military personnel in the debate over the new constitution represents undue interference in a civilian political issue, as well as an example of their desire to limit the sovereignty of the National Constituent Assembly. The politization of the armed forces puts the political elite face to face with a difficult dilemma. Politization fragments the military, making its political action as a group difficult. The emphatic defense of the concept of national security by military leaders and of their constitutional role regarding internal order seems to mean precisely that they are resisting a re-examination of interventionism.
