Brazil Army Takes Control of Rio Security in Election Year

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s President Michel Temer justified putting an Army general in charge of Rio de Janeiro’s security forces to contain a rising tide of violence by saying that the circumstances required extreme measures.

In a televised address on Friday evening, Temer explained the decree he had signed earlier in the day which puts the state’s police forces under military control. The intervention, which requires congressional approval, will last until the end of the year, according to the decree.

"We will not accept passively the deaths of the innocent," he said. "Our prisons will no longer be offices for thieves, our public squares party halls for organized crime."

The move, the first of its kind since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, is a response to growing demands ahead of the October general elections for a crackdown on crime and violence. It may also provide an excuse not to vote an unpopular pension bill, because by law changes to the Constitution can’t be made while a military intervention is in effect.

Indeed, Lower House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said the decree that would be put to a vote in both houses of Congress over the next few days would make a vote on the pension reform more difficult. The government still lacks the votes needed for the bill investors had hoped would put public finances back on track, Maia said.

“It’s an extreme moment and this is a very serious decision,” Maia told reporters in Brasilia on Friday morning. “Under those circumstances, that’s the way to reestablish order,” he said in reference to a growing sense of insecurity.

Violence and crime have been soaring in Rio de Janeiro in the aftermath of a deep recession that has left the state lacking funds to invest in its police, and to pay salaries. Public opinion surveys show security to be among Brazilians’ main concerns ahead of the October presidential elections. Jair Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro legislator and former army captain with a hard line against crime, polls second.

‘It’s part of Temer’s effort to find a positive agenda in the elections, something he can point to to show the people he’s doing something," said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the Rio de Janeiro State University. "Bolsonaro has grown a lot in the polls among other reasons because of insecurity.”

Shootings and mass robberies plagued Rio during the recent Carnival celebrations, when scores of tourists visit the city. Rio de Janeiro Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao admitted the state’s security has failed and asked for federal help, according to local media. The rate of violent deaths in the state jumped to 40 per 100,000 residents, the highest since 2009.

Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, after 21 years of military dictatorship, and intervention remains a sensitive topic in the country.

--With assistance from Matthew Malinowski

To contact the reporters on this story: Simone Iglesias in Brasília at spiglesias@bloomberg.net, Samy Adghirni in Brasilia Newsroom at sadghirni@bloomberg.net, David Biller in Rio de Janeiro at dbiller1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Walter Brandimarte, Bruce Douglas

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