States work to ensure safe elections

The government of Santa Catarina state announced Thursday (Oct 2) that leaders of criminal organizations serving time in the state will be relocated to federal penitentiaries. The number of prisoners to be transfered and target facilities are still under debate at the Ministry of Justice.

The Santa Catarina Military Police is currently investigating the link between organized crimes and the recent attacks on public buildings, police stations, officers' homes, and buses. The assaults started on September 26, and not even the seat of the state government has been spared. On Thursday (2), criminals fired five shots at its guardhouse. Hours later, three suspects were taken to jail.

Some 160km away from the state capital Florianópolis, the police arrested a man who had set fire to a house that had been used by a homeless person. The detainee itted to having followed orders from a member of a local criminal organization.

José Mariano Beltrame, the Secretary for Public Security in Rio de Janeiro, a state that has also fallen victim to a series of violent conflicts, acknowledged that criminal actions and clashes are more prone to happen in the period preceding the elections. He mentioned similar incidents in 2010, also ahead of the polls.

Unlike Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina decided not to call for  federal troops as a means to strengthen security in the first round of the elections, to be held next Sunday (Oct 5). The state's Secretary for Public Security, César Grubba, pledged to make the utmost efforts to make sure the polls take place smoothly, but did not rule out the possibility of asking for federal .

Thus far, according to the Ministry of Defense, 256 municipalities in 15 states have requested federal troops in an attempt to tighten up security during the election period.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira