Army Will Reinforce Actions on Oil Affected Beaches, Says Vice President

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Acting president Hamilton Mourão said yesterday, October 21st, that the Army’s military personnel will reinforce the clean-up efforts of oil-stricken beaches along the Northeast coast.

According to Mourão, a team of approximately 5,000 soldiers from the 10th Army Motorized Infantry Brigade in Recife, capital of Pernambuco, would begin to clean up beaches on Monday. “In addition to the equipment that is being distributed to the state and municipal Civil Defense,” he told reporters after a meeting at the Ministry of Defense about the leak.

The acting president said that the Minister of Defense, Fernando Azevedo e Silva, traveled to Recife to meet with the governors of Bahia, Rui Costa, and Sergipe, Belivaldo Chagas Silva today, to organize the clean-up efforts and to see that the material collected is being sent to cement plants that use the oil in their production line. “Everything is being organized,” he said.

Mourão said the government is working on the assumption that the oil spill occurred in the maritime region near the coast of Rio Grande do Norte. “All the intelligence systems are working to find out where the oil came from. The area we already know, at the mouth of Rio Grande do Norte, before [the coast] turns to the north of Brazil. It is believed that this oil would have come out of the area due to the flow of marine currents. Then we need to crosscheck data,” said Mourão.

The acting president said the government was quick to respond to the environmental disaster, which he classified as “unprecedented in the world”. According to him, the government was quick to activate the safety protocols, but there was a lack of communication.

Mourão commented on federal judge Telma Maria Santos Machado’s decision, who, in response to an action brought by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Sergipe, acknowledged that the government had taken the necessary steps to contain the oil spill on the northeastern beaches.

“The judge has already analyzed it and has demonstrated that the government has been activating the corresponding protocols since September 2nd. Only, once again, we failed to report back,” said Mourão as he left the meeting.

Source: Agência Brasil