Brazil Looks To Build A 10,000-Mile Virtual Fence
Brazil's borders are so vast, and the terrain so inhospitable, that attempting to secure them has seemed a virtually impossible task.
But Brazil's rapidly expanding economy has made the country a magnet for illegal immigration, drug smuggling and other illicit activities and now the country has announced its own border protection program.
Called thethe Sistema Integrado de Monitoramento de Fronteiras and known by its Portuguese acronym, Sisfron, it is intended to act as a virtual border shield along a frontier that stretches more than 10,000 miles and is shared with 10 other countries.
The sheer size of the terrain that will be covered makes this one of the most ambitious defense programs ever put in place in Brazil. Brazil is now picking supplies for the vast project, which is expected to take up to 10 years to finish, according to UPI. Dozens of companies are involved in getting the project up and running and it is expected to cost $13 billion.
"There is a lot of illicit transit across the borders," Alberto Pfeifer, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo, said in an interview with NPR. "Brazil does not have control over its territory."
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