BRAZIL’S TEMER ANNOUNCES NEW SECURITY MINISTRY
RIO DE JANEIRO: President Michel Temer has announced the creation of a Public Security Ministry after giving the military full control over security in crimeplagued Rio de Janeiro.
Temer came to the city to meet Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao, several ministers and General Walter Souza Braga Netto, who will lead the operation and who was in charge of coordinating security when the city hosted the 2016 Olympic Games.
“From next week or the next, I want to create a Public Security Ministry to coordinate all efforts,” said Temer on Saturday.
The new ministry would have a similar portfolio to the Interior Ministry.
Army patrols were already used in Rio’s gang-ruled favelas, but a decree signed on Friday by Temer now gives the military overall control of security operations in Rio state, which the president said had been virtually seized by organised crime gangs.
Brazilian police are normally under state supervision.
Temer’s order for “federal intervention” places command in Netto, who will report directly to the president and not to authorities in Rio, the country’s most populous state with around 16 million inhabitants — 6.5 million of them living in Rio de Janeiro.
The decree is already in force but must still be validated by congress, which has scheduled a vote for today.
The army’s mission will last until the end of Temer’s term as president on Dec 31.
Temer said he was taking “extreme measures” in the face of organised crime which has spread throughout the country “and threatens the tranquility of our people.”