20, 000 Members of the National Guard are stationed Washington DC to protect the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
The number of National Guard troops coming to Washington to help with security has so far grown to around 21, 000, said the army general Daniel Hokanson , Chief of the National Guard Bureau, to Vice President Mike Pence in a briefing on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.
Authorities have said the number could increase as law enforcement agencies review ongoing threats.
“We are clearly in uncharted waters,” said Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser. Last week’s “violent insurrection” on Capitol Hill by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump has “impacted how we approach working with our federal partners in planning the 59 at inauguration ”, he said Bowser on Wednesday.
The National Mall, the park that houses Washington’s most iconic monuments and the famous esplanade where crowds have gathered, will remain closed next Wednesday as part of the hermetic security measures in place in the capital for the inauguration of the president-elect, Joe Biden, reported this Thursday local media.
According to The Washington newspapers Post and Usa Today, to the imposing space, where the public usually congregate to attend the transfer of Government, will only have access to the media and staff of it security.
In the National Mall there are, among others, the monuments to former presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, as well as a huge esplanade that the late African-American leader Martin Luther King Jr. immortalized when he pronounced, the 28 August 1963, his famous speech “I have a dream.”
But, in addition, -detailed Usa Today-, more than a dozen Metro stations will remain closed, while thousands of National Guard soldiers will guard the city.
The strict arrangement around the handover of command in the United States was announced after followers of the outgoing president, Donal Trump, violently stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, in acts that caused five deaths, including one police officer from that legislative headquarters.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alerted on Monday in an internal bulletin about the threat of armed protests across the country since Saturday and indicated that they have received “information on an unidentified armed group that intends to travel to Washington DC on 16 from January”.
Outgoing President Donald Trump asked his followers this Wednesday not to incur “violence” or break the law in the coming days, and confirmed that they are bringing “thousands of members of the National Guard” to secure Washington.
With information from EFE
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