Municipal Police of Rio de Janeiro, Aim de la Torre Municipal Force. To welcome everyone, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Cavalieri, will speak. [applause] First, good morning everyone. Good morning everyone. I want to welcome the President of the Republic, President Lula, once again. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our governor Ricardo Couto, to the Minister of Justice, Minister Wellington, and to all the police forces that are here, especially in our case, the municipal force, and to the support of the National Secretariat of Public Security. Many thanks to Secretary Chico Lucas, Dr. Andrei, Director of the Federal Police, Dr. Antônio from the Federal Highway Police, and Dr. Víor, Secretary of State for Security. And here, Mr. President, in our case , our municipal secretary of urban security, Breno Carnevale, and the general director of the municipal force, La Torre, who is also here. I'll be very brief, Mr. President; I've prepared just one page here so I don't fail to mention what we're doing here today. I think it's very important. First and foremost, it signals that public safety is certainly the greatest concern for the people of Rio de Janeiro, the greatest concern for the residents of the state of Rio de Janeiro here in our state. And an action like today's, an achievement like today's, sends a very clear signal to the population of integration between the forces of the federal government, the state government, and the Rio de Janeiro city hall, but certainly, right, with an impact on all the cities in the metropolitan region. Just as we are here today, symbolically at this meeting, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, I want to draw the attention of everyone in the press to where we are. We're right at the fork in the road here between the Dutra highway and Avenida Brasil. Around us here, Mr. President, there are several municipalities in the Baixada Fluminense region that will be impacted by the initiative that the federal government is coordinating here today together with the state government, so that we can have this presence of law enforcement with intelligence and integration. We, Mr. President, have a set of agreements signed with the Federal Highway Police. with the Ministry of Justice, with the state forces, with the GSI, right, so that we can share information from the Rio de Janeiro City Hall with the state and federal forces, especially from our public surveillance system, which is the first thing I noted here, the Rio de Janeiro City Hall became the first city to be part of the national intelligence system. Today, all the information we have through the public surveillance system , Civitas Rio, is immediately shared with state and federal security forces . For example, in the case of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), we use our system for detecting cloned license plates and atypical behavior to share this information with the PRF so that a specific vehicle, a stolen truck, or a stolen car can be identified, and even in the case of investigative forces, they can follow up on what happened in a potential crime. This didn't just happen today, did it? We launched CVTA Gio in June 2024. Since then, we 've worked on a set of management methodologies, including COMPstal in the streets, with well-trained and well- prepared agents, all in partnership with the federal government. The discipline that the people of Rio de Janeiro see today in 14 areas within the municipal force is the result of training with the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Highway Police, right? They spent six months more than just preparing, Mr. President; we needed to establish a doctrine for a municipal force based on a new decision by the Supreme Federal Court that occurred last year. So, in one year, we trained the agents together with the Federal Highway Police and the Ministry of Justice, establishing a method of operation with body cameras, a mission- oriented framework, and a street policing logic that allows us to have very significant results today, more than 1200 arrests without firing a single shot, not a single bullet, with the firearms they carry in the city every day. This allowed us to have a coordinated system here for policing the streets against robbery and theft, basically petty theft like cell phone theft. And so here, I think that today, this integration with the state security forces and the federal government, in a very objective way, Mr. President, for us who live in the city of Rio, here in the metropolitan region, the presence of the national force, the Federal Highway Police, the state security forces, with the monitoring that we have already implemented in five city borders, we will reach 50 borders, this impacts the entire metropolitan region that circulates around here, Nilópolis, Mesquita, Nova Iguaçu, Belford Roxo, Caxias, Magé, are some of the 21 cities in the metropolitan region that circulate every day on the Dutra highway, by the way, with a huge federal government project right here in front of it, on the Dutra highway near Avenida Brasil, they circulate on Washington Luiz, they circulate on the Linha Vermelha ( Red Line), they circulate on the Linha Amarela (Yellow Line) in the northern zone of the city, connecting with Avenida Brasil. And today, we are very proud and honored to be part of this initiative with the digital walls, with the public surveillance of Civitag and the presence of the municipal force so that we have the security that all the roads in the metropolitan region, the main roads in the metropolitan region, have a presence of federal, state and municipal forces. And more than that, the information should be circulating as a single piece of information among all the buses. This allows for, you know, cloned license plates, stolen vehicles, cargo theft, all that type of crime here, especially on these main roads in the metropolitan area, to be greatly inhibited and reduced. So, I am very grateful for the initiative of Governor Ricardo Couto, President Lula, and I am sure that the other mayors of the metropolitan region, such as the city of Caxias, which has been working with us on digital barriers, the municipal force, certainly all the municipalities in the metropolitan region will want to be part of this initiative so that we can improve circulation in the metropolitan region. Worse for the criminal, worse for those who commit crimes, and better for the citizen. So, thank you very much, Mr. President, thank you very much, Governor, thank you very much to the Minister and secretaries involved here. [applause] We are now hearing the National Secretary of Public Security of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Francisco Lucas Veloso. Good morning everybody. Good morning, Your Excellency Mr. President, on whose behalf I greet the entire administration, the Governor of the State, Ricardo Couto, and the Minister of Justice, Wellton César, as well as all the police forces. Mr. President, I must say that the security model Your Excellency envisions for Brazil is this: integration between federal, state, and municipal forces, linked by intelligence, dealing firmly with crime while respecting the citizen. That's the most important thing. And I want to give a round of applause to all the police forces that are lined up here today and that are presenting this model to Brazil . [applause] Mr. President, there are several fronts, and today we are presenting some of them. We recently created FICUD, which is an integrated task force to combat organized crime across all states, coordinated by the Federal Police. We have an operation to combat cargo theft coordinated by the Federal Highway Police. Here in the state of Rio de Janeiro, André Garcia, the national penitentiary secretary, along with the state secretary Alessandra, are removing cell phones from inside the prisons. And yesterday we conducted an operation, Mr. President, regarding secure cell phones, inspecting the stores. So, at that initial moment, when you launched the secure mobile phone service, we sent the messages to the citizens. The citizens partially answered and said, "I bought from stores A, B, and C." And yesterday, in 15 states, we carried out the phase targeting shopkeepers precisely because, in order to combat crime, we have to attack it in all areas. And finally, this technical cooperation agreement with the municipal force, here represented by Mayor Eduardo Cavalieri, where the Federal Highway Police (PRF) and the National Public Security Secretariat (SENASP) train the municipal force, and they, Mr. President, inspect cell phones on the street precisely to recover them without firing a single shot. So, congratulations once again, and I want to say that if the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment) is approved and the SUSP (Unified Public Security System) is implemented, what is currently optional will become mandatory, and all entities will have to work together to bring public safety to all Brazilian citizens, reclaiming their territories and restoring to the citizens that security that is so desired. Congratulations once again to all the police officers, and you can count on the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. Thank you very much. [applause] The Minister of State for Justice and Public Security, Wellington César Limes Silva, is now speaking. Good morning everyone. I want to greet President Luís Inácio, all the participants in this event, our governor, the secretaries, our directors-general, and finally, the mayor, everyone. Mr. President, I want to tell you that the image you saw out there today is an image of integration. This is the only image and the only path that can produce results in security. Everything else, Mr. President. It's all talk, it's all illusion. The integration work that you saw represented in the courtyard illustrates this. And you are simultaneously anticipating things that will become even stronger with the approval of the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment). You are already anticipating and correcting a historical flaw that found its justification back in the constituent assembly period, which was an excessive concentration of power in the states and an obscuring, a disappearance of the role of the Union that is represented here today. The Union, Mr. President, has been breaking records. The Federal Police, whom I want to embrace, represented by my dear friend Andrei, Fernando, the Director General, the Federal Highway Police officer—all our secretaries are breaking records every day and every moment. Gentlemen, you can check the statistics; they are available on the Ministry of Justice website, covering all categories, Mr. President, homicide, robbery resulting in death , cargo theft, cell phone theft—all these areas. Therefore, we are certain, Mr. President, that this chapter in Rio de Janeiro, in which we are participating today, illustrates the initiative you took throughout your entire term. And I'm sure this is the most fruitful moment of his three terms in office in terms of public safety. I have no doubt in informing you of this. And I must say that the program we launched in May represented four important pillars that we know relate to financial strangulation, the prison system, combating the illegal arms trade, and increasing the homicide clearance rate. This, Mr. President, is cutting-edge in global public security. These are the elements. But you, with your intuition, care, and precision, said: "We need to move forward further." There is an issue concerning the reclaiming of territory, because in Brazil, citizenship and territorial ownership must belong to the Brazilian people. Everyone needs to understand this, both here and abroad. And we provide examples with numerically sound initiatives to illustrate this. That is precisely why, Mr. President, we are here unfolding the initiatives resulting from these technical cooperation agreements made with the state government and the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, which fundamentally work on three fronts, Mr. President. One has already been mentioned, which concerns qualification. We had 600 members in the Municipal Guard, and now we are adding another 386 with training from the Federal Highway Police . In the Ministry of Justice, Mr. President, our work is continuous and collective. We wouldn't have had yesterday's FICUD operation, which blocked 513 million, arrested 113 people, and carried out 177 search and seizure warrants, if it weren't for the work of the Federal Police in coordinating this very significant operation, which has resulted in a level of commitment and collaboration from all forces in 17 states never before experienced in Brazil. Today I have no doubt in saying that public safety professionals feel valued and encouraged to cooperate. Similarly, the second ACT, Mr. President, deals with strategic corridors, road corridors, and logistical and strategic corridors. This is fundamental, and the work of the Highway Patrol in this case, like the work of the Federal Police in the case I mentioned before, will be decisive, participating alongside the national force and the state security forces, Military Police, Civil Police, and municipal guards. This is the only way, Mr. President. There is no other. If organized crime is to occur, the state must be far more organized. And we can't send a weak message. The message needs to be strong. And the key message is to use integration along with intelligence and all the modern technological mechanisms we have to combat crime. Therefore, Mr. President, this is a day of joy, a day in which it becomes clear that this photograph illustrates the effort you make every day to promote the issue of public safety, and all members of the security forces and their families know this on a daily basis. So I leave here my sincerest thanks to everyone. Once again, I would like to express my gratitude for the extraordinary contribution of our governor, our mayor, our secretaries, and our legislators, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you very much, Mr. President. [applause] At this moment, the acting governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Judge Ricardo Couto, is speaking. Good morning everyone, right? I greet the President of the Republic. Today is a day where we celebrate a union that has been happening for some time now, right? The signing of the agreements presented here symbolizes the idea of ​​integration and interaction among all those who are part of the security apparatus. As already mentioned here, both by the mayor and the minister of justice, today we are symbolically holding an event to demonstrate the importance of this union between the presidency of the Republic, the state government, and the city government here in Rio de Janeiro. This union has no flag, but it is filled with great responsibility. Responsibility, which is constantly emphasized by the Presidency of the Republic and by our Mayor Cavaliere, isn't it? a unified vision and depoliticization of security. Security cannot coexist with a flawed political vision. We have to move forward, we have to keep going, focused absolutely on a single direction: getting it right , fulfilling the State's role in the area of security. And that is exactly what we are making a reality today. Here in the state of Rio de Janeiro, we are carrying out several joint activities. We are moving forward, we are making the biggest seizures, whether of drugs, materials placed improperly, contraband, adulterated products, all of this has been seized in the last few months , thanks to this union, where we can see that Brazil is indeed capable of moving forward on its own and carrying out its own security activities. It's not a matter of being under guardianship, is it? Because, you know, everyone here in the security apparatus understands the responsibility and precision of the duties they must perform, right? So here, as mentioned, first we are reinforcing the flow corridor in such a way that we will prevent theft or robbery of materials, thus stimulating commerce and industrial activity. We are also putting in place stricter fiscal barriers. The state of Rio de Janeiro, thanks to this, thanks to the support it is receiving, is already in surplus. So, some important news. What was once a dream is now becoming a reality precisely because of this activity that has been carried out. Today, the state of Rio de Janeiro is no longer in the red. This is news I'd like to share with everyone [applause] here, isn't it? And this should ensure that we achieve our stated goal of leaving the state of Rio de Janeiro with approximately 5 billion in cash, right? Therefore, dissemination of this information is of utmost importance, and this is due to the seriousness, the seriousness of everyone here, of the state security apparatus, the Military Police, the Civil Police, right? Within the municipality, the municipal police; at the federal level, the national force, the federal highway police, the Federal Police—they are all working together, right? I think I've already said too much, I've spoken in general terms. Then the state will release a statement detailing everything that was done in these agreements, what the exact objective of the agreement was, in order to achieve what the state should accomplish, right? That includes security, social development, and also industrial and wealth development. Thank you very much, [applause] ladies and gentlemen. The floor is now yours, President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva. You all noticed that there's a microphone for each of us here, right? Here I want to start by congratulating our governor Ricardo CTO for the good example and the certainty he is giving us that it is possible for us to fix everything that [clearing throat] is wrong in this country. And Rio de Janeiro is a state that represents almost everything that Brazil needs to be represented by. It's a state that represents the face of Brazil to the world. It's the state with the best beaches, the state with the best samba in the country, it's the perfect place for tourists, but it's been taken over by something we don't like, the image of crime. ... and a political class that doesn't always deserve the respect that society bestows upon it when it casts its vote. It's unbelievable that a state like this, the largest oil producer in Brazil, is experiencing the situation that Rio de Janeiro is experiencing. And what's happening here today, my dear governor, my dear minister of justice, my dear mayor, secretaries, and police represented here. It's a new picture that can change the face of Rio de Janeiro, remove Rio de Janeiro from the pages of corruption, and remove Rio de Janeiro from the face of organized crime domination. It's an extraordinary task to possibly correct an error that was made in the 1988 Constitution. I was a member of the Constituent Assembly. And when we were drafting the constitution, the issue of public security was a much-debated topic at the time, and I remember that the main discourse was about demilitarizing the country's public security, because there were many generals who controlled state politics. So it was necessary to end the Armed Forces' rule over the States. And we've passed almost all responsibility for public safety to the states. Some worked hard and it worked out, but most didn't. And for a very simple reason, because the police work based on manuals, obeying rules, complying with regulations. complying with a court order, complying with the orders of deputies and politicians. But organized climate change doesn't come with a manual, it doesn't have rules, it happens all the time, anywhere, because destroying is much easier than building. And what happened is that organized crime took over in almost all the country's capitals. There isn't a single governor who can proudly say that he solved the problem of public safety. There isn't one, because they all have the same problems. So, many people ask, why hasn't Lula, who has been president three times, taken on the responsibility of public security? Precisely because the Constitution stated that the responsibility lay more with the state's Military Police and Civil Police than with the federal government, which had the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, and the Penitentiary Police. For the Federal Police to enter any state, they need authorization, and the crime must be federalized; otherwise, they cannot enter. And here in Rio, things got even more serious, because the governor says every day, meaning, every department here has a representative who's in charge; in fact, some representatives are in charge of more than one department, some are in charge of two or three. So, it can't possibly work. This can't possibly work. In other words, we are trying to show from now on that if the federal government, the state government, the city hall, and we can standardize the intelligence procedure and establish a unified command, we can achieve results, because those who manage intelligence also use it as an arm of power and don't always want to share information. I tried, Governor, during my first term, to create a unified intelligence command. The navy, army, air force, and federal police—they don't talk to each other, they don't pass information to one another, because each one owns the information. Information is power, and nobody [clearing throat] wants to relinquish power. So, in order for us to take responsibility for trying to fix public safety, we decided to send a constitutional amendment to define the role of each federated entity. Where does the federal government come into play? What does the state government do? What does the city hall do? So that we can build a command structure where people obey that command. Because everyone knows that dogs with too many owners die of hunger because everyone thinks they fed them, but nobody actually did . If our security system has 300 commands, 400 commands, that is, and even from time to time, the governor, excuse me, but from time to time politics gets very depressed and upset because someone is arrested and the judge orders their immediate release. Sometimes the judge orders the release of the person after they've been arrested, and sometimes it depends on the criminal; they choose which prison they want to be in, and many judges make those decisions. Because this discussion also needs to be held with the judiciary, right? We know how much the police complain. Man, we arrested so-and-so, we arrested the guy, we took him to where else he came from. That's how everyone gets discouraged . So we are looking to build a new public security policy in this country, one that involves a city government the size of Rio de Janeiro, with this scope. It can't be left without its own police force with the right to carry weapons, because nobody respects those wearing rose petals anymore, in other words, nobody respects them. People need to understand that the police are there to prevent crimes and illegal acts. The police officer isn't there to play around; he's there to prevent people from doing wrong. And here in Rio de Janeiro, one of our commitments is to reclaim the territory. It makes no sense for a criminal to rule a favela, it makes no sense for a criminal to take over the club, the neighborhood. That makes no sense . And I know that none of us will be able to solve this alone. None. It's very easy to criticize and very difficult to build. So what we're trying to show here is the beginning. I consider this almost a pilot project. This is the beginning of an experiment where the Military Police, the Civil Police, the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, and the Municipal Police work together. Working together. [snoring] together emanating with the same objective, to bring tranquility to the people who live on the outskirts, to the people who want peace and quiet. And it's not just about catching the criminal on the corner, it's like gold mining. We never managed to catch the owner of the illegal mine. When we go to the army in the Amazon, we seize weapons, burn rafts, destroy planes, destroy earthmoving equipment, but the owner of the illegal mining operation is never there, never there. He was never bitten by a long P. The same applies to the head of organized crime. He will probably never get to know the favela. He's in a penthouse apartment, he's living in a condominium, he doesn't have to get his hands dirty. Someone has to get their hands dirty for him, and if there's public protection, even better. If you have a congressman who, when someone is arrested, rushes there and orders their release, all the better. A congressman wasn't made for that. A representative is elected to legislate for the benefit of the people, not to go around ordering arrests or releases. So, Governor, I want to tell you something from the heart, and to my dear mayor. I had a speech to read, but the speech isn't going to say what I'm saying. The speech is the manual, it's all planned out, comma. And I prefer to speak with you right away. We need to defeat organized crime. Nósamos, I don't accept the idea that gangs are terrorists, as Trump says. When Trump talks about terrorism, he's talking about state terrorism. He speaks of the struggle for power, for the fight itself. Who was that? It was Bolsonaro attempting a coup on January 8th. This is terrorism, thinking about killing Lula and even killing Alexandre Moraes. That was part of the plan. This is state terrorism. Now we 're talking about terrorists in the suburbs. Because these criminals are terrorists to the families who live in the neighborhood, to the people who are in school, to the people who want to dance at any little party in the outskirts, to the people who have to pay tolls for gas, who have to pay tolls for the benefits that the government offers. This is the kind of terrorism that scares everyone, from a child waking up early to go to school to their parents. We're going to clear this territory. This is our commitment: to rid Rio de Janeiro of crime so that society can move around with peace of mind. If this project succeeds, we'll start with some important things. First, stifle the logistics and mobility of crime. This is the first step in this pact. We are doing it. The second is to retake the territories. And the third is to strengthen the role and capacity of capital cities and cities with larger populations. Look, we've discovered something important, folks. Look, I was the one who built the first maximum-security federal prison in this country. The six federal projects were all carried out during our administration, back when Marco Aurélio Tomás Bates was Minister of Justice. What have we discovered now? We have 138 prisons. 138 prisons where the crime bosses live . And in those 138 [units], we're going to transform them into a maximum security prison. We're going to invest money, we're going to equip the state, equip the state police. The lawyer visiting the prisoner must exercise discretion. No one can have a cell phone anymore and not know who gave it to them . How does someone manage to get into prison with a cell phone and nobody knows who it was? Could it have been a pigeon? No, someone took it. That's why we're going to monitor things very closely. Overseeing prisons is no place for criminals to run gangs. Prison is the place where a person pays the penalty for the crime they committed. And so it will be. From now on, get ready, because the moment the constitutional amendment is approved , I will create the ministry. But creating a ministry isn't about creating it just for show, because if there's no money, the ministry won't accomplish anything. We need to have a ministry, we need to have a budget for public security, a quality budget, because people say: "We need to take care of the borders." People don't even know that we have 16,800 km of land border. Imagine from Argentina to Amapá, to Furiname, to Goiânia. Then we have 8,000 km of maritime border and we still have another 5,700 km of sea under our jurisdiction. And now we have oil on the equatorial margin. 175 km from the shore of the Amapá River. We think it's in the Amazon, but when we say "more equatorial," it's 575 km from the banks of the Amazon River, and it's oil, governor. It 's possibly the new pre-salt oil; it seems to be of higher quality. So we have to take care of that. The pre-salt layer is 300 km from the shore of our beach. We have to be careful because Trump is here. The work is focused on finding critical minerals, oil, and rare earth elements. No, this is ours. But there's no point in us saying we're going to do it. [applause] It's no use just saying we're going to do it. It needs to be done for real. How are we going to control 18,000 km of border without investment? We're going to need unmanned aircraft , we're going to need drones, we're going to need personnel, we're going to need to significantly increase the number of highway patrol officers in the Federal Police. We're going to have to improve the state Federal Police and the state highway patrol. We're going to have to find out what role the armed forces play on the border, because this country is strange. I was the one who built the first bridge between Brazil and Bolivia in 500 years. I was the one who made the first bridge between Brazil and Peru. Therefore, taking care of the border means taking care of an inhospitable region. You know, the police in São Paulo probably don't even know about that, because the mosquitoes aren't going to eat your blood, drink your blood. So, look at the gesture made here today, Governor. I wanted to say that this is perhaps the most serious gesture, the most responsible gesture regarding public safety. We are having a fresh start to create a new standard for public safety in this country. And God willed that we start in Rio de Janeiro, because if it works in Rio, it will work throughout the entire country. Thank you to the mayor, thank you to the governor, and thank you to the police officers. And congratulations on the number of women I'm seeing in the federal highway police. We need more women. Because women are more intelligent than men and they can do more things intelligently than we can. Hugs, everyone, and congratulations, Governor. [applause] President of the Republic. Thank you very much.