Brazil's Environmental Authorities Gain Power To Call Out Elite Troops For Enforcement Duty

摘要

Brazilian Justice Minister Tarso Genro March 2 issued a measure allowing IBAMA, the enforcement arm of the Environment Ministry, to call on the justice division's elite National Public Security Force (FNSP) to help with enforcement activities, a top ministry official told BNA. The unnumbered measure modifies an earlier ministry measure that said the FNSP-some 8,000 specially trained military policemen and firefighters-could be convoked only at the request of state governors or by the federal police, Brazil's version of the FBI, Ricardo Balestreri, the ministry's national public security secretary, told BNA. The Justice Ministry plans to specially train a 400-mernber FNSP team by the end of 2009 to help IBAMA in environmental enforcement. About 50 troops will begin training in March, Balestreri told BNA. Typically, states provide IBAMA with regular military policemen to back up its agents in emergencies. "The minister signed the measure because IBAMA has argued that it needs a specially trained FNSP team in emergency situations, in particular to stop rioting that results from IBAMA crackdowns against illegal deforestation, especially in the Amazon," Balestreri said.