Brazil will soon start using drones and satellites to monitor the thousands of kilometers that make up Brazil's borders in a bid to reduce drug and arms smuggling, the government has announced.
Brazil shares its 1,600-kilometre border with ten other Latin American countries, and organized crime frequently profits from illegal shipments of arms and drugs across its lengthy frontier.
"This plan is not intended to push our border problems onto our neighbors' lands," said Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. "On the contrary, the point is to monitor these border zones with them so we -- and our ten neighbors -- can live together peacefully, without war or conflict," she explained.
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The plan will rely both on more technology and manpower.
"Beginning in August or September, Brazil will begin to operate drones which will crisscross the borders with a fine tooth comb," said Brazil's minister of justice, Jose Eduardo Cardozo.
"We will also create a joint center for operations and a satellite control center," he added.
Rivers and lakes make up 9,000 kilometres of Brazil's borders, with most of the remaining 7,000 kilometers (4,000 miles) of frontier occurring in areas like the Amazon that are particularly tough to patrol.
Brazil shares a direct border with Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname and a maritime boundary with French Guiana.
