Favela Mandela was raided by 50 police early this Friday morning. Fugitive and trafficker Eduardo da Penha Queiroz was arrested and a 12 gauge shotgun, 7.62 caliber ammunition, marijuana, crack, cheirinho da loló (a drug based on a mixture of ethyl alcohol or benzene, chloroform, ether (all of which are carcinogens) and essence of fruit), and two stolen motorcycles were seized.
Upon entry there was an intense gun fight between traffickers in the community and police on foot and in the air.
Nine other fugitives who had previously fled from Penha and Alemão were arrested during operation in Manguinhos the previous Thursday.
Read full article via O Globo
Showing posts with label pacification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pacification. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
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
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
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Complexo Alemão in Rio de Janeiro Has Been Taken
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| Complexo Alemão in Rio de Janeiro Has Been Taken. Via O Globo |
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.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Complexo Alemão Access Points Surrounded
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| Trafficker escape route from Villa Cruzeiro to Complexo do Alemåno. Via O Globo |
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?
Thursday, November 25, 2010
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
---
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.
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
---
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.
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