Brazil to deploy 85,000 security personnel during 2016 Olympics
Xinhua, July 31, 2015 Adjust font size:
The Brazilian government announced Thursday that it will mobilize 85,000 police and military personnel to guarantee security during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, more than twice the number for the London Games.
This would be the largest security plan for the Olympic Games in the history of the city, official sources said.
As many as 37,000 army personnel will be mobilized alongside thousands of various police forces to guard Rio de Janeiro and other cities hosting the football events -- Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Sao Paulo and Manaus, said Andrei Rodrigues, the official tasked with overseeing security during major events in Brazil.
The budget covering this massive security operation will be shared by various government departments.
The Ministry of Defense will spend 580 million reais (171 million U.S. dollars in buying communications equipment and preventing cyber attacks.
The state government of Rio de Janeiro will invest 750 million reais (222 million dollars) in building infrastructure, such as command centers, mobile police offices, observation platforms, and helicopter-mounted cameras.
The Brazilian Intelligence Agency will also set up in the Olympic city a center dedicated to combat terrorism, where it will receive the help of intelligence agents from numerous countries. Endi