MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazil satisfied with first chapter of “Strategic Frontiers Plan”
President Rousseff claims 62 tons of drugs and 6.5 of ammunition have been seized since last June President Dilma Rousseff revealed Monday that in the last four months Brazilian forces in the framework of the ‘Strategic Frontiers Plan’ had seized over 62 tons of drugs and 650 kilos of arms and explosives.
“We’ve had very positive results. We already have seized 62 tons of drugs in the last four months and this means that we have impeded a volume of marihuana, cocaine and other drugs from entering Brazilian cities”, said Ms Rousseff in her Monday chat program “sharing coffee with the President”.
The Brazilian leader also said that one of the operations of the Plan recently concluded along the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay had meant the seizure of 650 kilos of explosives, arms and ammunition, besides the drugs haul.
Brazil deployed thousands of troops with air and fluvial backing along borders with Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay with the purpose of better monitoring the frontier which traditionally has been very permeable.
Brazil is preparing in anticipation of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and needs to disarm the drug dealers’ gangs which virtually control the slums of the city and entail serious criminal risks.
Further north in the Amazon basin, Brazilian troops as part of the plan destroyed three clandestine landing strips used by drug dealers and closed down an illegal mine which was working inside a protected Indian reservation.
In the four months so far, 3.000 people have been arrested for illicit actions and 300 arms 65.000 ammunition have been confiscated.
Brazil has over 16.000 kilometres of land borders with all South American countries with the exception of Chile and Ecuador.
The combined Police-Armed Forces frontiers’ strategic plan had been anticipated to neighbouring countries from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and the French Overseas Territory of Surinam.
In a recent chopper over-flight of the River Parana, shared by Paraguay and Brazil, Defence Minister Celso Amorim revealed he was able to identify tens of improvised jetties or loading piers which “are obviously used for illegal or illicit operations” from simple smuggling to traffic of arms and drugs.
Brazil has purchased UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicles) from Israel to further monitor borders and the illegal trading. According to Brazilian military sources, UAVs should be operational in the next six months.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
Read all commentsIf Brasil is able and willing to do this wrt drug transportation, it should be so much easier to do this for illegal logging.
Oct 11th, 2011 - 09:28 pm 0Before trees are logged they don't move and so should be easy to spot from the air with their new toys.
When the trees are logged they lay down sideways in groups, making them very easy to spot. The GPS on the toys tells the good guys where they are all laying down.
When the trees are being moved, they move on roads. This makes them very easy to spot and to track.
We know this is going on day in and day out; we plot the geographical areas where it happens; we report on the accellerating rate of today's logging and burning and deforestation of the greatest and most important rainforest on earth.
Could we stop it instantly, if we really wanted to?
Of course we could.
Could we stop the illegal loggers killing those who try to stop them?
Of course we could.
Could we show the whole world that we REALLY CARE for the rainforest?
Of course we could.
Dilma Rousseff, President of this great country, COULD do this.
But she has not done it.
She makes a big deal about a few tonnes of pot.
BIG DEAL.
And all the while, the future of the earth's environment becomes more and more compromised by her FAILURE AS THE NATION'S PRESIDENT.
For God's sake, Dilma, GROW SOME BALLS. If you can do it in a favela, you can do it in the forest. Jail these illegal loggers and hang the coronels, etc, who are getting rich destroying the future of our planet.
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