In one of several military operations that have been launched over the past year to tackle illegal gold mining, illegal deforestation and drug smuggling in the Amazon rain forest, Brazil is sending more than 8,500 troops to patrol an area that stretches across the northern border of the country.
The deployment, which underscores Brazil’s efforts to assert greater control over the more than two-thirds of the Amazon that falls within its borders, comes as international expectations over Brazil’s role as a regional power rise -- and as a United Nations conference on sustainable development to be held in Rio de Janeiro nears.
“Leading up to the Rio+20 conference, the Brazilian government wants to show that it is doing something to bring some control to the environmental destruction that is so rampant in the Amazon,” Scott Wallace, a National Geographic contributor, expert on Brazil and author of “The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes,” told Trend Lines. “Brazil is beginning to recognize that, as it emerges as a major player, it really does need to bring more law and order to the vast stretches of the Amazon that are largely lawless.”