Bolsonaro Extends Rio de Janeiro Armed Forces Security Intervention through 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro has ordered the extension of the Federal Intervention Office in Rio de Janeiro until December 2021. Back in 2018, Brazil sent in federal forces to take control of security in Rio de Janeiro state. The Brazilian government had appointed an army general to oversee security

The structure, which consists of military and commissioned staff, was expected to be closed in December this year. According to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the cabinet’s reporting of accounts, and the extension of activities should not result in increased public spending.

“The proposal is based on the need to properly account for and receive the goods and services that were unexpectedly delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The measure will not cause an economic impact, because the resources are allocated in planned budget programming,” the portfolio said in a statement. The President’s decree should be published in Monday’s edition of the Federal Gazette (DOU).

Federal intervention in the area of public safety in Rio de Janeiro was decreed on January 16th, 2018, by then president Michel Temer, after the government declared a state of public calamity in the sector due to a serious fiscal crisis – which paralyzed investments and even salary payments.

The works ran until December 31st that year, but the structure was maintained so that the federal government could complete the purchase and transfer of equipment and vehicles to the state government, such as weapons and helicopters.

The officer appointed by Temer to head the public safety area in the state of Rio de Janeiro was Army General Walter Braga Netto, the current Chief of Staff.

The Federal Intervention Office had invested around R$319 (US$79) million in the purchase of equipment for the police, firefighters and penitentiary operatives of Rio de Janeiro up to April 2019.

According to the 1988 Federal Constitution, the federal government should only intervene in states in cases when it is necessary: to put an end to severe impairment of public order (as is the case in Rio de Janeiro); to ensure national integrity; to repel a foreign invasion; to repel invasions from one state to another; to ensure the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary branches of government remain in operation; and to reorganize the finances of states.

Source: Agência Brasil