Young Brazilians performing mandatory military service are prohibited from voting for the duration of their service, even though other members of the armed forces and police retain normal voting rights. The restriction is written directly into Brazil’s 1988 Constitution and is one of only two explicit constitutional prohibitions on voter registration, the other applying to […]

A new debate has opened in Brazil over replacing compulsory military service with a more professional and technology-focused force. Former justice minister Ricardo Lewandowski argued that modern warfare increasingly depends on cyber capabilities, drones, artificial intelligence, and other advanced systems, making mass conscription less useful. Critics of the current model say conscripts receive only basic […]