Brazil. President Dilma Rousseff announced the installation of x-ray systems to reinforce the inspection of vehicles and the installation of surveillance cameras at the borders, as the Confederations Cup and the Pope's visit to Brazil approached.
"By protecting our borders we help increase the security of our own population and the major events that are coming, the Confederations Cup in June and the World Catholic Youth Day next month, when we are going to receive the visit of Pope Francis," Rousseff said on her weekly radio program Café con la Presidente.
The president recalled that two years ago, the government launched a police operation coordinated with neighboring countries to intensify border surveillance. That operation is supported by Operation Agate, in which soldiers travel the border area for a month to inspect vehicles and ships.
He also said that the border police already have five mobile teams that allow them to detect weapons and drugs hidden in trucks and cars that pass through the region and in the coming months two such equipment will be delivered to each of the states located along the 16,886 kilometers of land border of Brazil.
He added that the government will allocate 15 million dollars to those states to acquire surveillance cameras along the border, along with systems for transmitting and monitoring the images collected.
Border surveillance is supported by four remotely controlled aircraft, called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which allow inspecting areas where criminal groups are suspected of operating without exposing pilots to being shot down.
"The Federal Police and the Air Force are going to repeat that partnership (for the use of UAVs) in the security actions of the Confederations Cup and during the visit of Pope Francis to Rio de Janeiro," Rousseff said.
The president stressed that border operations are carried out in cooperation with neighboring countries and cited the fact that Colombia and Peru carry out actions to combat crime simultaneously with Operation Agate 7, while military personnel from Bolivia, French Guiana, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela participate as observers of the operation.
