RS: National Force and temporary police officers will contain looting and robberies

The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, informed this Tuesday (7) that he will adopt measures to guarantee the safety of the population, contain looting of accommodation and theft of boats.

Leite asked the Ministry of Justice for more men from the National Force and contacted governors from other southern states to send police officers. This afternoon, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, authorized the sending of another 100 agents from the National Force. With this, the contingent of the force in the state will reach 220.

Another measure will be the temporary hiring of reserve police officers.

“I ordered the opening of a notice, with an urgent call, which is a state program that allows the temporary hiring of police officers who are in reserve,” said Leite, in a press interview.

The governor stated that there should be a call for a thousand police officers to be employed also in street security, but also in shelters and other places in need of reinforcement.

In an interview with TV Brasil, the superintendent of the Federal Police in Rio Grande do Sul, Aldronei Rodrigues, reported that most of the lootings were recorded in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. According to him, tactical groups from Santa Catarina and Paraná will arrive in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul to reinforce patrolling of the cities, together with local police forces, such as the Military Brigade. “We are providing support and providing security for groups of civilians who are working in rescue efforts,” he said.

Resources

The governor also announced the allocation of R$70 million, initially, to be divided (around R$200 thousand) between each municipality affected by the emergency.

“You can’t keep asking for bureaucracy. You have to put the resource at the tip [em cada município] to ensure that municipalities have the capacity to respond. There isn’t even time for us to survey the situation in each municipality,” he lamented.

He said that all municipalities that are declaring an emergency situation will receive the amounts. The variation in the impact of the disaster between municipalities will be assessed. “We will make new transfers soon”, he guaranteed.

Another action will be the provision of a resource of approximately R$50 million for the “Volta por Cima” program, to serve approximately 20 thousand families in situations of poverty or extreme poverty that have been impacted by the floods since last year. “The money goes on the citizen card, but we will have to reissue the card for many families who lost everything, including their cards.”

Temperature drop

Eduardo Leite lamented that the climate situation is likely to worsen in the coming days. A cold front is moving towards Rio Grande do Sul and this should cause widespread storms in the state, in all regions. According to the forecast, temperatures will plummet on the night of Wednesday and Thursday with heavy rain expected in the southern part of the state.

“There is a first projection that, between Friday and Sunday, we will experience very heavy rains again in the northern half of the state, affecting the rivers that have already risen and which have already caused all this damage,” said the governor.

“It won’t be time to go home. It will not be time to be in the places that were hit. The projection is that the rains could generate new days of heavy flooding”, recommended Leite.

According to the governor, among these areas are regions that have already been affected, such as Vale do Taquari and Serra Gaúcha.

“We are still monitoring, monitoring developments, and we will bring these alerts throughout the week. So it is a time of great difficulties, but we are very dedicated to reestablishing services, keeping the state functioning and overcoming these new challenges that lie ahead.”

* With information from Guilherme Portanova, special envoy from TV Brasil to Porto Alegre