RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government on Friday announced its decision to put Rio de Janeiro state under a public security federal intervention.
Brazilian President Michel Temer signed the decree in Brazil's capital city Brasilia on Friday afternoon, which takes immediate effect. Rio state governor Luiz Fernando Pezao was present at the signing ceremony.
With the intervention, the federal government takes over the entire public security sector, which is usually in charge of the state administration.
The decree, which still needs to be ratified by the Congress, foresees that the federal government will take over the responsibility for public security in all of Rio de Janeiro state until December 31st, when both Temer and Pezao end their terms in government.
The new leader of public security in the state is Army General Walter Souza Braga Neto. The intervenor is subordinated only to the President and takes over command of the Rio Civil and Military Police, the Prison Administration Secretariat and the Fire Department.
President Temer compared organized crime to a metastatic cancer which spreads over the territory.
"Organized crime has almost taken over Rio de Janeiro state. It is a metastasis which spreads over the country and threatens the tranquility of our people. That is why we have just decreed the federal intervention in the public security sector in Rio de Janeiro," he said.
Temer admitted that the intervention is an extreme measure, but argued that the circumstances demand a hard response.
"The government will give a hard, firm response and will adopt all necessary measures to face and defeat organized crime and gangs," Temer said. "We cannot passively accept the death of innocents and it is intolerable that we are burying mothers and fathers, workers, cops, youngsters and children, and seeing entire neighborhoods occupied by crime."
Rio has been facing problems in the public security sector for the past few years. The security situation in the state continues to be precarious. The police are short-staffed and suffer with a chronic corruption problem.
In 2017, 134 policemen were killed in the state, and 14 were killed so far in 2018.
