Brazil faces an increase in violence from powerful drug gangs and vigilante militias that control territories. “It is a national security problem,” according to the president.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaconfirmed this Wednesday the development of a military operation in the main ports and airports of the country, in the face of a situation of violence that he described as “very serious”, at the hands of organized crime. “The situation became very serious, the violence we are seeing “it gets worse every day”declared the leftist president at a press conference from the Planalto Palace after signing the decree of military deployment.
Brazil faces an increase in violence by powerful drug gangs and parapolice militias that control territories, fundamentally Rio de Janeirowhich prompted Lula to consider it “a national security problem.”
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Lula authorizes a military operation against drug trafficking
The operation, which It will have 3,700 troops from the Army, Navy and Aeronauticsaims to “help Brazil to break free from drug trafficking gangs and weapons,” as Lula declared. The special measures They will extend until May 2024 and will be limited to the port of Santos, the largest in the country, in the state of Sao Paulo and two others in the state of Rio de Janeiro: that of the city of Rio and Itaguaí.
“If it were necessary to reinforce more ports and airports, we are going to do it”added the president.
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How Brazilian forces will proceed
The military They will act in coordination with the Federal Police in order to intensify the arrests of suspects and the confiscation of assets of criminal gangs, “especially in Rio de Janeiro,” according to a government note. “Is essential “take money away from organized crime”, which already manages in Brazil “billions of reais”, as stated by the Brazilian Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino.
Lula showed up reticent to send the armed forces to combat organized crime in the favelas, pointing out not wanting “pyrotechnics”in relation to other armed interventions that were carried out in the past and that They failed to pacify the areas taken by militias and traffickers.
The situation It is especially delicate in the western area of Rio de Janeiro, which is already under the control of the militiasgroups created by former police officers who practice extortion, and in recent years, also drug trafficking.
Last week, the attack by one of those powerful criminal organizations in the tourist capital of Brazil left 35 buses and a train on firein response to a police operation that “killed one of their leaders”according to the authorities.
Source: Ambito
