The Brazilian government is expected to announce the deployment of army troops to Rio de Janeiro’s slums within days, escalating a crackdown on organised crime less than three months before the World Cup. The move follows a series of co-ordinated attacks on police bases blamed on the city’s largest drug gang, Comando Vermelho.
Five police officers have been killed since February, and last week police posts in three favelas were set ablaze. The Rio state governor, Sérgio Cabral, who will meet President Dilma Rousseff on Friday, said: “It is clear that criminals want to weaken our policy of pacification and take back territories that were in criminal hands for decades.”
The pacification programme, begun in 2010, has established 38 police units in favela communities, staffed by over 9,000 officers. However, confidence has been eroded by a series of human rights abuses, including the recent death of a woman dragged by a police car and the suspected torture-murder of a missing man last July.
Residents report increased tension, with revenge killings by police death squads on the rise. “It's definitely more tense than at any time since the UPP began,” said Hercules Ferreira Mendes, president of a residents’ association in Penha. “The traffickers are trying to take back the territory they held for so long. People are afraid to stay out at night.”
The violence threatens World Cup preparations, as many of the one million expected fans will pass near favelas on the route from Rio’s international airport. Organisers face concerns over security, though officials insist the state will not back down.
