Alejandro Noronha Batista (born 8 June 1959) was a Brazilian soldier and counter-terrorist operator serving with Rainbow from 1998 to 2005. He retired in 2005 at the age of 46, living in Rio de Janeiro with his wife and two daughters.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Noronha was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil to an import businessman father and a housewife mother. He had an aspiration to join the military, attending college at the Agulhas Negras Military Academy from 1977 to 1981.
Military career[]
Noronha served two terms of duty with the Brazilian Army before he was recruited into the Counter-Terrorism Detachment of the Brazilian 1st Special Forces Battalion in 1987. In 1995, he achieved command of one of three squads of CTD. Noronha has crosstrained with Delta Force, the Unidad Anti-Terrorista, the Brigada Especial Operativa Halcon, and the Agrupacion de Fuerzas Especiales Urbanas.
In 1996, Noronha was one of several CTD operators who assisted Peru in ending the 1996 Japanese embassy hostage crisis perpetrated by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement in Lima.
Rainbow career[]
He was recruited by the legendary international counter-terrorist unit Rainbow in 1998, serving with them until his retirement in 2006.