Vice President Calls for More South American Integration to Fight Drug Trafficking

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “We need a firm alliance in South America to combat drug trafficking and other related illicit activities, such as weapon smuggling and smuggling in general,” said Mourão, on the morning of Monday, 30th, as he participated in the opening ceremony of a training event for security professionals held by the National Secretariat of Public Security (Senasp) of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Federal Police (PF).

In the lecture, Mourão said that the fight against crime is one of the priorities of the federal government, alongside stimulus for the revitalization of economic activities, which also depends on a safe environment. “This whole issue of revitalizing the economy is closely linked to public safety.”

Speaking about bordering countries, the vice president also highlighted the issue of cocaine manufacturing. “We are concerned about the large production of cocaine that occurs in neighboring countries. Whether planting the coca leaf, or transformation into cocaine that, as we all know, passes through our country to go to the major consumer markets, being partially consumed here, where part of it becomes its worst byproduct, which is crack cocaine.”

Mourão also defended changes in criminal legislation, which he classified as lenient. “Our laws are lenient. Look at the punishment progression regime. The comrade kills a person and, five years later, he is already on the street. It’s the famous work-release system, or always released,” he said in a pun.

He also criticized the way in which the justice system punishes crimes committed by children and adolescents. “The crimes committed by minors [are something that] we have to discuss without ideological passion because the big criminal organizations use this group as mass manipulations,” he said.

The vice president also stressed the need to reform the prison system, saying that this “cannot be a dungeon, nor a vacation camp, but a place for rehabilitation.”

According to Mourão, the state needs to invest more in social aspects and value more the police forces. “We have to try to solve the problem of the favelas,” he said, citing an example of unattended locality.

“In the favela, there must be a street and a house with a number. There must be electric light and no cable hook. There must be running water, sewage, a full-time school. This is not a campaign speech,” the vice president emphasized.

Without solving the social problems, the state will continue to spin its wheels in the mud in the field of public safety, said Mourão. “There will be an eternal supply of crime by people who are unhappy with the situation in which they live,” he said.

Source: Agência Brasil