sports
Brazil to deploy 38,000 military personnel for Olympics
Brazil's Defence Minister, Aldo Rebelo, announced yesterday 38,000 military personnel will be deployed to carry out security operations during the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
China's Xinhua news agency reported 20,000 of them will be based in Rio de Janeiro while the other 18,000 military personnel will ensure safety in five other cities where football matches will take place.
The capital city Brasilia is one of the five cities.
The security budget for the Games, both for the preparation and during the event, is 704 million reais (RM782 million). Out of this amount, 240 million reais will be invested in deploying troops.
Combining the military personnel and security agents, a total of 85,000 men will be available in operations when they are required. This figure will double the security personnel number at the London Olympic Games.
Rio de Janeiro will receive around 10,500 athletes from 206 countries and regions and security will be the joint responsibility of the Defence and Justice
Ministries and the Brazilian Intelligence Agency.
"The national surveillance and intelligence system will work together before and during the Olympic Games," said Rebelo.
The government expects the Olympic Games to convene without political demonstrations, like what happened in the 2014 World Cup, according to Rebelo.
"I think there won't be any public protests like in 2013 or in the World Cup.
The Olympics will take place in a much calmer atmosphere," added the minister.
Regarding the government's strategy to prevent the spread of Zika, Rebelo explained that around 5,000 military personnel are carrying out operations against the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the disease.
The Rio Olympics will take place between August 5 and 21 and the Paralympics will be between September 7 and 18.
Brazil hopes that the number of international tourists entering the country during the Games will increase by 20%. – Bernama, March 10, 2016.
Please note that you must sign up with disqus.com before commenting. And, please refrain from comments of a racist, sexist, personal, vulgar or derogatory nature and note that comments can be edited, rewritten for clarity or to avoid questionable issues. As comments are moderated, they may not appear immediately or even on the same day you posted them. We also reserve the right to delete off-topic comments