By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The mayor of Angra dos Reis, Fernando Jordão, declared a public security state of emergency yesterday (Tuesday, August 21st) due to the wave of violence in the city, with rival criminal factions fighting for control of the drug trafficking in the region.
Angra dos Reis, meaning ‘Kings’ Harbor’, counts 365 islands and some 2,000 beaches, all just a few hours away by bus southwest from the city of Rio along the Costa Verde (Green Coast). Most foreigners come to know the area as the main ferry point to the famous yet rustic Ilha Grande.
The city is also the location of Eletronuclear, a subsidiary of Eletrobrás, which operates Angra I and II nuclear power plants. According to Jordão, the situation of public insecurity may result in the request to shut down operation of these facilities.
“The grave situation facing our city is curtailing the fundamental right of citizens to come and go, preventing essential public services from being carried out in certain traffic-controlled locations. The situation is unsustainable. We can not accept this,” said the mayor.
What triggered the mayor’s initial appeal for help in recent days was the burning of a bus on Monday night at the entrance of Parque Belém. Since the weekend criminal factions have been at war, with shootings and intimidation of the population according to local press.
A woman, claiming to be homeless told the Tribuna Livre, “They got on the bus, they shot up and sent us down. Two boys got on the bus and set it on fire. I thought I was going to die of fright.”
Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Jordão again demanded federal intervention in the city. He has met several times with the President Michel Temer and with the head of the Office of Institutional Security, General Sérgio Etchegoyen, as well as head of public security in the State of Rio, general Braga Netto.
Jordão explained that the municipality has played its part, collaborating, as much as possible, with the police, and cited the purchase of twenty vehicles for the Military Police, the implementation of the Disque-Denuncia and the cooperation with the State Program for Integration in Security.
He appeals for the whole society to become involved in the fight against crime and violence, using the Disque-Denuncia (0300 253 1177). “It must be remembered that if there is a fight between factions in the territories today, it is because they have a clientele for the [drug] traffic.”
Adding, “It is the consumption of drugs and narcotics that drives all this war in Brazil, the State of Rio and Angra dos Reis.”
Just in May Jordão declared a state of emergency for the city due to truckers’ strike in Brazil. According to city officials, if there was a nuclear-related problem, the city has a mandated emergency evacuation plan, which would not have been possible due to blocked highways and fuel shortages.
In November last year, an American diplomat was shot near Angra dos Reis, in the southern region of Rio de Janeiro state. Vice Consul Stephanie Bohlen and her husband, Jace Joseph Salas, were attacked while stopped on the shoulder of the BR-101 Highway.
In August last year an English tourist was shot and wounded in Angra dos Reis when her family’s car entered a favela community by mistake. The woman was with her husband and three children on the Rio-Santos Highway when she mistakenly entered the Água Santa community.