National Republican Guard (Portugal)
The Portuguese National Republican Guard (Portuguese: Guarda Nacional Republicana, GNR) is the gendarmerie of Portugal. Members of the GNR are soldiers, who, unlike the agents of the Public Security Police (PSP), are subject to military law and organisation. The GNR is responsible for law enforcement in the countryside and small towns (large urban centers are patrolled by the PSP), and providing a national highway patrol and fiscal guard. There are also two military reserve regiments: an Infantry Regiment and a Cavalry Regiment. The GNR also has ceremonial duties and provides guards of honor.
In the 2000s, the GNR has provided detachments for participation in international operations in Iraq and East Timor. As of 2008, the GNR maintains "Detachment Bravo" in East Timor, comprising about 200 personnel, who perform the task of helping to maintain public order in that former Portuguese colony.
Read more about National Republican Guard (Portugal): Strength, Organization, History, Equipment
Famous quotes containing the words national, republican and/or guard:
“All experience teaches that, whenever there is a great national establishment, employing large numbers of officials, the public must be reconciled to support many incompetent men; for such is the favoritism and nepotism always prevailing in the purlieus of these establishments, that some incompetent persons are always admitted, to the exclusion of many of the worthy.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The Republican party makes even its young men seem old; the Democratic Party makes even its old men seem young.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)
“Lord Angelo is precise,
Stands at a guard with envy, scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)