Justice minister, Rio governor announce emergency unit to combat crime

Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, and the Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Claudio Castro, announced on Wednesday (Oct. 29) the creation of an emergency office to combat organized crime in the state. The objective is to improve coordination between the federal and state spheres.

The coordination will be shared between the National Secretary of Public Security, Mario Sarrubbo, and Rio’s Secretary of Public Security, Victor Santos.

“It is a forum where the security forces can communicate and make quick decisions until the crisis is resolved. This is the embryo of what we want to create with the Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Public Security currently under discussion in the National Congress. We want to build synergy among federal, state, and even municipal forces in confronting this scourge,” said Minister Lewandowski.

The idea is for actions to be “100 percent integrated” to overcome bureaucracies and respect the competencies of each agency, according to the governor of Rio.

“We are trying to eliminate barriers so that we can truly provide public security that serves our one and only client - the citizen,” said the governor of Rio.

The measure comes after Operation Containment in the Alemão and Penha favelas, which left more than 100 dead. The action is considered the deadliest in the country’s history. In retaliation, criminals linked to the Comando Vermelho faction blocked streets in various parts of the city, using vehicles and barricades to obstruct the roads.

Lewandowski said that the Brazilian government will increase the number of Federal Highway Police officers on the roads and provide additional personnel for the state’s intelligence sector. Experts and vacancies in federal prisons have also been made available, should the state government request them.”

The meeting at Guanabara Palace, the seat of state power in Rio, took place after Governor Cláudio Castro requested more support from the federal government in confronting criminal organizations operating in the state. According to Castro, the state is acting “alone in this war.”

On the same day, Lewandowski said he had not received a request for help from the governor regarding the operation. The minister recalled that, at the beginning of the year, the governor of Rio had visited the Ministry of Justice and Public Security to request the transfer of leaders of criminal factions to federal maximum-security penitentiaries, and his request had been granted.

“Narcoterrorism”

The Rio government has frequently used the term “narcoterrorism” to describe organized crime. When asked about the expression, Minister Lewandowski said it does not reflect the reality of the state.

“Terrorism is one thing; criminal factions are another. Terrorism always involves an ideological componente - a political action or social repression, often accompanied by sporadic attacks. Criminal factions consist of groups of people who systematically commit crimes defined in the Penal Code. Therefore, it is quite easy to identify a criminal faction based on the results of its actions,” the minister stated.

Lewandowski said that the law clearly defines the classifications of criminal organizations and terrorist groups.

“These are two types of action that should not be confused, and the federal government has no intention of mixing them,” he added.

GLO

Lewandowski and Castro ruled out the possibility of deploying the Armed Forces to ensure security in the state under the Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) decree.

“We did not express an opinion either way [for or against]. The GLO is provided for in Article 142 of the Federal Constitution. It is an exceptional operation that depends on a request from the governor...or from the local authority that recognizes the inability of local forces to contain a crisis situation,” the minister said.

Castro also denied having considered requesting the measure.

“This [GLO] only came up because I raised the issue of armored vehicles, which we had requested on three previous occasions but were denied on the grounds that a GLO would be required. The situation of Rio de Janeiro’s security forces today is completely different from that of 2018. Today, we have a capable state security force,” the governor added.