RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Brazil will establish a public security ministry to tackle rising crime, President Michel Temer announced on Saturday.
The ministry will oversee the Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, National Penitentiary Department and the Secretariat of Public Security, which until now have been supervised by the Justice Ministry.
Temer made the announcement after meeting in Rio de Janeiro with military and regional officials over the increasing militarization of security tasks in the state, the country's top tourism destination.
"We are not going to stop here. Shortly, by next week or the one after at the latest, I want to create the special Ministry of Public Security, which will coordinate public security nationwide, obviously without interfering with the capacities of each federated state," Temer told reporters at a press conference.
"The situation in Rio de Janeiro also creates problems in other states, because if things aren't working here, they're not likely to work in the rest of the country," he said.
Temer did not take questions or say who he had in mind to run the ministry.
On Thursday, Brazilian Defense Minister Raul Jungmann condemned the violent crime marring Rio's famed carnival celebrations, calling it "inadmissible and unacceptable."
He pledged to take additional steps to prevent the spate of assaults and robberies targeting carnival goers after various media outlets aired footage of gangs rampaging through tourism hotspots, such as Ipanema and Copacabana, mugging revelers.
The Justice Ministry will continue to devise preventive policies to combat the illicit drugs trade and related issues.
