Military exercise in Amazon joined by agents from several countries

Brazil's federal government should give more attention to and strengthen surveillance efforts in the country's tri-border areas to bolster the fight against the traffic of guns and drugs. The statement was made by Saul Bemerguy, mayor of the town of Tabatinga, 1.1 thousand km away from Manaus, capital of Amazonas, the biggest state in the Brazilian Amazon Forest. The town can only be reached by boat or plane.

The town, located on the triple frontier shared by Brazil, Peru, and Colombia, has staged an international humanitarian aid simulation in the Amazon region—known as AmazonLog17—which started with medical care services offered to the local population. The exercise is slated to end on November 13.

Some 2 thousand people are taking part in the simulation from the armies of Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, in addition to agents from the US, Germany, Russia, Canada, Venezuela, France, the UK, and Japan.

The event aims to promote more coordinated efforts by institutions in case of natural disasters and accidents, in addition to providing training for agents in the Armed Forces.

Drug trafficking routes

The triple frontier area, comprising the towns of Tabatinga (Brazil), Letícia (Colombia), and Santa Rosa (Peru), is considered by the Brazilian government a key gateway for the trafficking of cocaine in the country's northern region.

If more attention were given to frontier areas, Mayor Bemerguy further argued, there would be less need for the deployment of the Armed Forces and the police in operations such as the one being conducted Tuesday (7) in favelas in São Gonçalo, outside city of Rio de Janeiro.

“Congress members and the government should better regard the region and become more familiar with the frontier area, because police officers are dying in the state capitals, but things come here first—guns, drugs, everything. If there's no infrastructure or security here, then it's over. We can't put an end to this by ourselves,” he said.

Another concern expressed by the mayor is the excessive demand in public services, as is the case with health care. “This is a unified area encompassing nine municipalities in Amazonas state, but that's not all; they add up to 25 cities altogether, because there's also Peru and Colombia. And when someone shows up at a health care station, nationality's not an issue. It's life that counts.”

Triple Frontier

Brazil has a total of nine tri-border areas, most of which in the North, totaling 9,762 km including the country's frontiers with Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. The advance of organized crime is among the authorities' main concerns, despite the 21 thousand military agents in the region today.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira