Authorities from Uruguay and Brazil participated, this Tuesday the 30th, in the opening of the Binational Meeting on Public Security, in the city of Rivera. On the occasion, ministers Luis Alberto Heber, Javier García and Francisco Bustillo agreed on the need to establish joint work with the neighboring country to mitigate the effects of organized crime and drug trafficking in border cities.
The activity took place in the amphitheater of the Northeast Regional Campus of the UTU, with the participation of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Bustillo; National Defense, Javier García, and Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, and the mayor of Rivera, Richard Sander.
From Brazil, the Secretary of Public Security of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Vanius Santarosa, and the prefect of Santana do Livramento, Ana Tarouco, among other authorities, attended.
Heber highlighted the coordinated work with the northern country to mitigate the effects of organized crime and drug trafficking in the binational cities of Rivera and Santana do Livramento.
He considered that the knowledge that will be generated in the workshops of this meeting will allow promoting policies and coordinating actions to improve public security on the border.
García, meanwhile, said that the work of the Brazilian army in that area has been going on for many years and is broader and more experienced than that of the Uruguayan, which began only two and a half years ago. For this reason, it was agreed to carry out mirror exercises between the two in order to maximize the organization to face crime.
The chief added that more than 11 million hours of service were carried out in this task, more than 12,000 checkpoints were installed, the number of river and land patrols exceeded 40,000 and the number of flights exceeded 930. As for the summary of This jurisdiction, especially during the pandemic, the Armed Forces prevented 3,640 irregular entries of people into the country and intervened in 23 cases of seizure of narcotics, 35 of firearms and 108 of repression of large contraband.
Bustillo pointed out that, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the border must be an area that integrates localities, societies and neighboring spaces. For this reason, he indicated that work has intensified with the embassies in Argentina and Brazil and with our consulates in the area in order to reactivate the institutional instances of bilateral relations.
In another order, he explained that the Foreign Ministry prepared a draft decree to establish a National Border Commission, made up of the actors involved in the issue, which will design a bill with a National Border Plan and will be responsible for formulating, conducting and evaluate the agreed integration actions in accordance with Uruguay’s foreign policy.
