With millions of pilgrims and holiday-makers taking to Brazil’s roads, the Polícia Rodoviária Federal (PRF) activated Operation ‘Nossa Senhora Aparecida 2026’ at 17:20 on 8 October. The annual campaign concentrates patrols along highways leading to the Aparecida basilica in São Paulo and the Círio de Nazaré festivities in Pará—two of Latin America’s largest religious gatherings. PRF will deploy additional officers, drones and a helicopter to manage traffic flows and combat crime on federal routes until 13 October. This year’s operation introduces real-time drone surveillance on the BR-116 corridor, giving command centres instant imagery of pedestrian movements and congestion hotspots. The technology allows faster dispatch of patrols to incidents and supports lane-closure decisions, reducing delays for long-haul truckers and inter-city coaches that share the route with thousands of walkers and cyclists. PRF is also issuing RFID wristbands to vulnerable travellers to speed reunification in case of separation. For corporate mobility managers, heightened enforcement means stricter speed checks and random cargo inspections—factors that could lengthen just-in-time deliveries between São Paulo, Rio and the south-east industrial belt. Logistics firms have been advised to reschedule nighttime driver shifts and allocate buffer hours for deliveries crossing the BR-101 and BR-118, which funnel traffic toward the pilgrimage sites. On the security front, PRF is sharing incident data with state military police and municipal guards, creating a unified dashboard that flags attempted cargo theft or passenger-coach robberies in real time. The integration is expected to cut response times by up to 40 %, according to PRF’s operations director. Ride-hailing platforms have also been invited to tap the feed, allowing them to reroute vehicles away from congestion or risk zones. The success of the operation will influence planning for December’s Christmas exodus, when road travel peaks again. If drone-based monitoring proves effective, PRF says it will extend the approach to other national holidays and possibly to land border crossings where congestion and smuggling remain chronic challenges.
Source: Polícia Rodoviária Federal
