Research shows that 88% of Rio's population support the measures being taken against trafficking

Article translated from O Globo

A survey by Ibope Intelligence shows that 88% of the population supports the measures being taken against drug trafficking. According to the survey, 49% of respondents said they fully endorse the measures against trafficking, other 7% do not approve and or disapprove, and 3% disagree with the actions.

Thousand residents in the state, all aged above 16 years were interviewed between 27 and 29 November. The margin of error is three percentage points.

The vast majority of people who participated in the survey also said they were confident in the ability of police to repress the action of the outlaws: 82% believe the police are capable.

About the feeling of safety with measures adopted, 41% of people said they feel safe against 30% who say they are unsafe. Another 26% said they feel neither safe nor unsafe.

The research also revealed that 70% believed that Rio will be a safer place by the end of the operation against trafficking. For 17%, the stock does not make a difference. Another 6% said the river will become more insecure.

About the difficulty of moving through the city because of violence, 69% reported having faced the problem and 31% claimed to have had some difficulty.

The vast majority (93%) of respondents supported the participation of the armed forces. The residents of Rio are also optimistic about the city's image abroad after the operation: 69% believe that the image is better (and 22% believe it will be much better), 15% believe that the picture will get worse and 11% think that it makes no difference.

The interviewees, however, said they believed the events would hinder the achievement of the 2014 World Cup and Olympic Games 2016: 54% of people believe to be harmful (including 18% say it hurt a lot) and 41% trust that no harm at all.

Full research report, pdf

Complexo Alemão in Rio de Janeiro Has Been Taken

Complexo Alemão in Rio de Janeiro Has Been Taken. Via O Globo

Unsurprisingly, the PM moved in to Complexo Alemão, Rio de Janeiro this morning. What does suprise me is the fact that there was very little resistance from the favela community that is considered the trafficking stronghold of the city. Police raided the German Complex at 8am on Sunday, with about 2,600 men, and around 10 am had already reached the top of the hill. [See the series of events in photos]

I was seriously expecting a huge battle to take place when the PM finally made their move into Alemão. It was suspected that over 600 traffickers were hiding in Alemão. The right hand man of one of the traficante leaders came down from the hill to turn himself in after Rio’s authorities had urged the hundreds of traffickers hiding in Alemão to “surrender with arms in the air by sunset on Friday.” I wonder how long it will take for other gang members in jail to badly hurt of kill him for his betrayal.

Also on Saturday many of Alemão's residents took to the streets with white flags and tee-shirts proclaiming PEACE. These are the people who are really suffering. Many of them have been without water and electricity for over 24 hours. Some residents fled from their homes in fear of the imminent confrontation. Anything, everything. and anyone going in and out of Alemão was thoroughly searched and residents were prohibited from returning to their homes in the hours before the raid began. And you thought the TSA was bad...

But now Alemão has been taken by the state and a search of all homes has been issued. There were very few arrests and so far I've only heard of one death. This means that the traffickers have fled - yet again. I've heard many people in Niterói suspect that they will inevitably flee here, to Ntierói, and also to São Gonçalo. Very unfortunate indeed. Residents of Alemão have said that they have seen traffickers fleeing through the sewer line installed by the works of the Growth Acceleration Program (CAP), which in my view show that they are getting pretty desperate to have to resort to fleeing through sewage lines - extremely disgusting and full of terrible bacteria!

Right now there is tranquility in Complexo Alemão, but it seems people are still on edge because of the ease at which Alemão was taken. Even spokesperson for the Bureau of Drug Enforcement said, "The environment is quiet. Disturbingly quiet."

What is amazing is the amount of support the police are getting from the general public. It seems like all of Rio is ready for a change. The middle class is tired of the violence that occasionally spreads into their communities, and I get the feeling that favela residents are also ready for a new page in their history.

I can't say that I support the invasion of favelas, especially since it just seems to be transplanting social issues from one area to the next, but I can cay that I support the UPP program. To be clear I do not think that any of this is happening because the government really cares about these people or is doing them a favor, I believe that these people are now seen as consumers. Pacified favelas now have to pay bills to legitimate electric providers instead of paying gangsters in the informal economy for stolen electricity. Even McDonald's is considering opening up shop inside one favela. Vila Cruzeiro was just promised a R$400 million (US$231 million) to build infrastructure, a shopping mall, 47 new shops, and a park with space for a cinema. A wave of social services has been promised to Alemão as well.

I just hope that this can last. I think it gives hope to people that their communities can be better and that they don't have to be run by gangsters. I hope that even though many traffickers fled, they are loosing some of their power, slowly but surely. There will always be drugs and guns, but now it is being forced to be underground rather than flagrantly out in the open. At least now kids are not idolizing traffickers with unlimited guns, drugs, and girls that hangs out on the corner every day (not to mention their mini-mansion hideout) .

Now all I can do is wait and see where the fleeing traffickers turn up.

Complexo Alemão Access Points Surrounded

Trafficker escape route from Villa Cruzeiro to Complexo do Alemåno. Via O Globo

Like I said earlier, Military Police (PM) unit, BOPE, entered Villa Cruzeiro, along with a few hundred Army soldiers and their tanks. Over 200 gangsters fled through the forest into Complexo Alemão, which is where other gangsters from previously pacified favelas are suspected to have fled as well. Villa Cruzeiro "belongs to the state," as the PM announced on TV.

Complexo Alemão is now a major hotspot. The federal government has given 800 more Navy troops to the city of Rio to use in the operation - but the PM and BOPE are still running the show. The main access points to Complexo Alemão are surrounded by military forces, but they are not entering - yet. People I talk to here say the police won't enter - but I think they will, probably tomorrow. Why would they take personnel from the Army and bring in tanks if they weren't planning something big. If they take Alemão they will be making a huge statement. And if they are eventually able to pacify it and send in UPP - wow - that would be unheard of.

I am suspicious of UPP, but I've heard a lot of good stories coming out of pacified favelas. The process of pacification - mainly the invasion part of it - is what can be terrible. But the question becomes: what about after 2016?

Great Favela Pacification Video via Al Jazeera

Peace in the favelas - PEOPLE AND POWER - Al Jazeera English

Rio Conflict Makes US News

RIO DE JANEIRO — Police raided gang-ruled shantytowns Wednesday, setting off clashes that killed 14 people as authorities try to halt a wave of violent crime that has rattled rich and poor alike in a city that Brazil hopes to make a showplace for the 2016 Olympics.

Police invaded the Vila Cruzeiro community and surrounding slums early in the day, engaging in intense gunbattles. Twenty-five people were detained.

"We didn't start this war," police spokesman Henrique de Lima Castro Saraiva said. "We were provoked. But we will emerge victorious."

Over the past three days, 21 people had been killed and about 150 arrested during sweeps by 17,500 officers, Lima Castro said. Two officers suffered minor wounds in Wednesday's fighting.

A wave of recent gang violence has shaken Rio. Authorities say gangs are lashing back in response to a law-enforcement drive to regain control of territory the past two years. The police force has been assigned an additional 1,200 officers to fend off attacks.

"We are stepping up our efforts," Lima Castro said. "We will be even more trenchant tomorrow."

Most of the violence was concentrated in the city's poor northern and western neighborhoods. Robber gangs have erected roadblocks where they have stopped cars and buses and set 29 vehicles on fire since the clashes began Sunday. One man was killed Wednesday when he refused to stop at a roadblock.

Police said they had not yet identified all the dead or determined what connection, if any, they had to drug trafficking or other crimes.

"Bystanders may be affected," Lima Castro said.

As bodies arrived at the Getulio Vargas state hospital in northern Rio, desperate relatives insisted their loved ones were innocent victims and lashed out at police and drug dealers alike.

"Congratulations, congratulations for killing another innocent victim," screamed a distraught man who identified himself as the father of 14-year-old Rosangela Barbosa Alves. Barbosa was killed by a stray bullet at her home in Vila Cruzeiro.

The father did not want to give his own name for fear of retaliation.

"There are three children (who were shot and killed) ... and no one does anything," added a weeping female relative of Barbosa who also declined to be identified. "The criminals are never killed."

The relatives of another victim, identified by the health department as Rafael Felipe Goncalves, 29, wrapped his body in a blanket and carried it down a steep slope leading to the hospital. He had been shot in the head and was dead on arrival.

"He is not a criminal," cried a man who identified himself as the victim's brother.

Security officials say the roadblock robberies and other gang violence are aimed at bringing a halt to a police campaign to force the groups out of the city's numerous shantytowns, where they have long ruled with impunity.

Thirteen shantytowns have been freed of gangs over the past two years. The plan is to liberate 40 – a small fraction of Rio's more than 1,000 slums – in time for the 2014 World Cup.

Police said a note found on a burning bus Wednesday warned that if law enforcement continues to push drug dealers out of the slums, Rio won't be able to host the Olympics.

Rio state Public Safety Director Jose Beltrame said security forces will not be deterred.

"This is not an easy task, but it is also an opportunity to build a better city," Beltrame told Globo TV on Wednesday. "We are not giving back one millimeter. Their threat shows we are on the right path. They're being affected."

Rio's governor, Sergio Cabral, urged calm.

"What the bandits want is panic," he told CBN radio Wednesday. "We are facing a desperate reaction from criminals. But we are not going to despair."

Police have responded to the roadblock robberies by deploying riot officers on expressways into the city of 6 million people and sending patrols into more than 27 gang-controlled shantytowns to find gang members they hold responsible for the attacks.

Violence has plagued Rio for decades, but most has been contained within the slums that cling to the hillsides. Now, a few of the recent attacks have spilled into middle-class and wealthier neighborhoods closer to the beach, spreading fears that police are losing control of the city.

"The scary part is that now it's getting close to us. Before the violence was always far away," said Olga Silveira, who was milling around a plaza in the wealthy Ipanema neighborhood where police on Wednesday blew up a large, empty wooden box mistakenly feared to contain explosives. "Now we're feeling it on our flesh. The criminals have discovered the power they have and they want to show it."

Article via HuffingtonPost

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They want to pacify 40 favelas by 2014 while thousands still are gang hideouts. All they are doing is transplanting the problem away from where these international events will take place. Then what happens in 2016 after the Olympics are over? This is not a permanent or sustainable solution, in my opinion.

War in Rio's Favelas

Bandits fleeing Vila Cruzeiro towards Complexo do Alemão. Via O Globo

In Rio at least 17 schools, several universities, and 12 nursery have been shut down due to the increased violence in Rio and the surrounding area. In Rio's favelas there is an all out war going on... and it is all being broadcast live on TV. Seriously, there are hundreds of bandits running around in the hills that surround the favelas all with giant guns. The police shoot them from the military helicopter all while the news helicopter catches it on film. I have never seen anything like this.

What we are watching right now is the invasion by Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) of the Vila Cruzeiro Favela. The bandits fled towards Complexo do Alemão. Whereas the gangs used to fire upon each other when one rival entered the others territory, now the gangs have joined forces and can flee between favelas. It began when 150 military police officers from the BOPE and 30 Marines with painted faces, entered the Vila Cruzeiro, in Penha, on Thursday in the early afternoon. Six armored vehicles, the same as the vehicles used in Iraq, are being used to transport troops to the favela as well. Over 100 municipal police were also sent into the favela. This is just one police operation out of many that have occurred since the police forced began their retaliation early Wednesday morning.

Residents, especially those that live in favelas (most favelados are good, hard-working, honest people, by the way), have barricaded themselves in their homes or have left home all together. Stray bullets are a sad reality of urban warfare.

So far 27 people have been killed. Police said they had not yet identified all the dead or determined what connection, if any, they had to drug trafficking or other crimes, but Military Police Colonel Lima Castro did warn that, "Bystanders may be affected."

I left the house today without fear because I live in a safe neighborhood, but there are heavily armed police everywhere as people stop at pubs to watch the violence happening across the bay.

Map of the Violence in Rio de Janeiro

Below is a map of the violence in Rio de Janeiro. Click here for a more detailed map.


Visualizar Ataques no Rio a e reação da polícia em um mapa maior

Blue: Bus fire
Red: Car fire
Green: Attack on a Military Police booth
Light Blue: Death
Yellow: Suspected bomb
Purple: Arrest
Pink: Police reinforcements sent

Bandits Attack Rio de Janeiro, Set Fire to Busses

Last night Russell and I were told not to leave our house because there would be muggings and attacks at night. Our inside source was right. This morning we woke up to breaking news - there were attacks  in Rio de Janeiro as well as the nearby cities of São Gonçalo and Niterói. Thankfully the community within Niterói where I live - Icaraí - was not targeted.

I've been reading about what happened on O Globo, the major Brazilian new outlet. From what I can tell so far here is a basic time line of what's been going on:

Shots were fired as bandits trawled and set fire to cars - Photo CléberJúnior

Throughout the day this past Sunday, "bandits," as they are called, continued with their series of car thefts and muggings in Rio de Janeiro city, giving the general population in Rio a little scare. Basically what happens is a group of bandits come out of the favelas with their giant guns and shut down the road. They then trawl the jammed traffic for valuables and cash (which is why they are referred to as arrastões, or trawlers, here). Some people flee their cars and take shelter in nearby businesses, others wait in their cars and hand over all valuables. Never try to outsmart the bandits, they have no problem putting those massive guns to use - seriously.

By Sunday afternoon the first reports of cars being torched began hitting the news as car thefts and trawling continued.

On Monday morning five armed men torched three vehicles and attacked a Military Police car. Soon after, the same men are suspected of attacking a Military Police booth in Irajá with machine guns.

The Military Police began a series of raids in Rio's favelas in th e very early hours of Tuesday morning after four more cars were torched and another Military Police booth was attacked. Later in the afternoon intense fighting between Military Police and bandits erupted in the streets shutting down Avenida Nossa Senhora da Penha in Rio. It was reported that the Military Police were fired upon when they arrived after receiving a complaint in the area, but it is hard to know what really happens in these firefights.

Military Police continued their raid of Rio's favelas on Tuesday. Eight criminals were arrested, two traffickers killed, two men arrested, and two children taken into custody. Explosive devices, jugs of gasoline, weapons (including shotguns, a revolver, and some handguns), motorcycles, marijuana, cocaine, and crack were also seized. The military and municipal police forces announce that they will continue the raids until a sense of security is restored to the people of Rio.

A bus that was torched on Wednesday morning / Photo: Eliezer Bridges

Last night and into this morning more vehicles were set ablaze. So far, at least ten cars, a van, and five buses have been torched since the latest early dawn attacks began. Four people were taken to the hospital when a van was set on fire, leaving the driver and passengers with severe burns to their legs. Others were injured when a bus waiting in traffic was set on fire early this morning. The violence also spread beyond Rio de Janeiro into the nearby cities of São Gonçalo and Niterói, where a handful of cars were torched. Thankfully the community within Niterói where I live - Icaraí - was not targeted. Russell and I also had forewarning that violence would enter into Niterói and were warned to stay home.

In response, the Military Police has called all officers to duty, not allowing those already working to go home and calling in all off-duty officers. All administrative duties were called off and every officer is being sent into the field in order to prevent further violence. Unfortunately, violence has only escalated as the Military Police have killed at least 10 people in multiple favela raids this morning, leading to the first deaths in the conflict. The military and municipal police have also joined forces throughout the state of Rio in hopes of preventing more attacks.

Today Secretariat of Intelligence Security Bureau announced that for the first time in 16 years, the two major criminal factions in Rio teamed up. The Rocinha gang (from Rocinha favela) joined forces with their rival gang from Complexo do Alemão (another favela). Their goal: destabilizing the primary public safety program in the state - the deployment of Police Pacification Units (UPP - Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora). Security secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame responded by promising to double the force of the Military Police and warned that, "those who cross the path of the UPP will be run over."

UPDATE: Another bus has been set on fire. There have been 150 people arrested so far. The death count for today is now at 13. Among the dead is a 14 year old girl, victim of a stray bullet in the slums of Grotão in Penha.

According to Military Police Colonel Lima de Castro, some 17,500 police are on standby throughout the metropolitan area.

"We did not start this war. We were provoked into it and we will be victorious," said Col. Castro.

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Favela invasion and pacification has become the preferred technique of the Military Police in an effort to rid Rio of violence in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. The Military Police special forces, Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (Special Police Operations Battalion), commonly know by its acronym BOPE, storm the favela, often with helicopters and on foot. Traffickers either flee or stay and fight the BOPE creating an urban war zone that often leaves innocent bystanders in the crossfire. After violence calms down BOPE moves out as the UPP (Police Pacification Unit) moves in. Basically a heavily armed office now takes the place of the heavily armed gang member. These have been many success stories out of favelas that have been pacified, although there is still widespread anger about the takeover and occupation process. One major problem arises when you consider that many traffickers flee before or during the invasion, thus transplanting rather than solving the issue.