Years of Wrath
| Years of Wrath | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
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State security forces:
 National Gendarmerie of Rio Grande do Sul |
Catarinan secessionist paramilitaries
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Catarinan unionist paramilitares
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| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
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2,467 (ERRG) 1,050 (National Gendarmerie) Total: 3,517 |
1,022 (MADC)
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318 (UVC)
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Civillians killed: 6,440 (6,772 including ex-combatants)
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The Years of Wrath (Rio-Grandense Portuguese: Anos de Fúria), also known as The Wrath (Rio-Grandense Portuguese: A Fúria), were an decade-long ethno-nationalist conflict in Rio Grande do Sul, specifically located in the northernmost department of Santa Catarina, that lasted from 1994 to 2005, ending with a large-scale military intervention by the Rio-Grandian Republican Army in 2004. Even though most of the violence was confined to Santa Catarina, violence spilled to other parts of Rio Grande do Sul and to the neighbouring countries of Argentina, in the province of Palmas, and Brazil, in the province of Paraná and São Paulo.
Described as the "South American Troubles", the conflict consisted of what could be considered a highly assimetrical war of medium intensity, sometimes nearing a civil war. The reasons for the conflict were deeply historically rooted, and contained a strong ethnic and sectarian character. Secessionists, mainly based at the northern and western cities of the department, along with working class neighborhoods of Desterro, and descendants from the original citizens of the Juliana Republic, supported the independence of Santa Catarina as a independent republic. Unionists, on the other hand, were mainly based in the southern and eastern cities of Santa Catarina, along with other working class neighborhoods of Desterro, and had close cultural and historical ties with Gaúcho communities in the region of Santa Catarina, wished for the maintainance of Santa Catarina as a department of the Rio-Grandian Republic.