The defense ministers of Brazil and Colombia announced Friday plans to fight drug trafficking, promote biodiversity, and protect indigenous populations in the Amazon border, reported El Espectador.
Negotiations for a bilateral security plan will prevent criminals and illegal armed groups to operate in the dense jungle border area.
“We are going to start negotiations regarding a bi-national security plan to ensure that the 1,022 mile long border between Colombia and Brazil will have a kind of shield for the communities, that will allow them to move freely without being in fear of criminals in the area,” said Colombia’s Minister of Defense Rodrigo Rivera Salazar.
Officials discussed joint strategies to eliminate drug laboratories and cocaine refineries in the border area. Brazil’s Minister of Defense Barsil Nelson Jobim said he is also hoping for a cooperative policy between cocaine-producing countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru to end the transportation of drugs along the Amazon border.
Jobim announced that in the coming years Brazil will increase the number of soldiers stationed in the region and develop a satellite surveillance system for the border.
Both defense ministers also recognized that the border is home to a wealth of natural resources, which must be protected.
“We have a very important natural asset [on the border], and we must develop a strategy for cooperation among all countries in the subcontinent, a strategy of deterrence to preserve this asset,” explained Brazil’s Minister of Defense.
At the end of the meeting, Jobim and Rivera traveled to Medellin, where they will meet with President Juan Manuel Santos to continue discussions on a binational security plan.