Colonel Alexandre Augusto Aragon, who heads the elite National Security Force, was quoted in local news on Friday as saying that the riot troops selected from state police forces throughout Brazil will be deployed in the 12 cities hosting game in the competition.
“We’ve have been concerned with the security during the World Cup before the protests that took place earlier this year, because we don’t wait around for things to happen,” he said. “The violence of recent protests is what scared us.”
Representatives for the Justice Ministry, which oversees the National Security Force, could not be immediately reached for comment.
At the peak of last year’s protests, one million people took to the streets across Brazil in a single day, complaining initially of higher bus fares, corruption and poor public services, and then extending to the billions of dollars being spent on the World Cup and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Jerome Valcke, the top FIFA official in charge of the World Cup, said recently that the tournament would have “the highest level of security you can imagine” to contain any violence.
Source
