Brazil police step up Rio gang violence drive
The BBC has had a couple of reports on a new police "surge" (sorry, could not resist that) into gang territory; link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11838472
There are linked stories and the Marine Corps have provided the police with logistic support and a small number of APCs (M113 in the photos seen).
A band-aid to fix a dysfunctional city.
A critical comment on 'Pacifying Rio', which has some interesting points I have not seen before. For example the Brazilian foreign policy goals being expressed in their military role in the UN Haiti mission, with the lessons learnt coming home.
Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...-security-oper
The harsher side of Brazil
Amidst the limited reporting here of the protests against bus fare rises and then with a wider theme a report on how Brazilian police can act:
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A security force operation in northern Rio de Janeiro has left eight people dead, as the country struggles to contain a popular uprising partly fueled by police brutality.
I suspect this fact may explain a lot:
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a Special Operations Battallion (BOPE) sergeant was killed
Not seen these figures before, they are rather sobering:
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Police in Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil's two biggest cities, have killed 11,000 people in the last ten years - in 2008 one person was killed for every 23 arrested, compared to the US police average of one death per 37,000 people arrested.
Link:http://www.insightcrime.org/news-bri...favela-protest
If you're thinking of visiting Brazil for the World Cup in 2014, time to rethink?
Downside for pacification: a torture indictment for one
Not unexpected I fear, the opening passage from a NYT report:
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A Brazilian police officer who spoke at a technology conference in New York on Tuesday about the potential of a new smartphone app to aid in the “pacification” of Rio de Janeiro’s lawless favelas was indicted the same day by prosecutors back home in connection with a notorious case of torture and murder by her unit in July.
Link:http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/201...new-york/?_r=0
The lady officer did return home. Yes being a police officer in such places is very hard, torture is not the response.
I had not realised the pacification effort was partly privately funded:
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In August, the embattled Brazilian business tycoon Eike Batista — whose annual contributions of nearly $10 million had paid for U.P.P. equipment, uniforms, weapons, ammunition and training — withdrew his financial support for the project.
Pacification was a dream of the residents that became a nightmare
The title comes from the closing line in the linked article, which was headlined:
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Gang gunfights loom over Rio de Janeiro's World Cup preparations
It appears that not every favela likes pacification:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...parations.html
Out of the mountains into the slums?
On the topic of Kilcullen/"Out of the Mountains" would Brazil's hosting of both the FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics represent a great opportunity to see how the "conflict entrepreneur" and un/self-governed spaces issues are dealt with?
To me, Brazil's favelas seem like the best laboratories to see how megaslum governance and management solutions play out(or don't).
Such as the Brazil's Pacifying Police Unit(UPP).
If there's one place I'd like to be on the ground to learn and understand in the next two years would be Brazil's favelas.
Out of the mountains into the slums?
This thread is at the suggestion of Flagg. Using David Kilcullen's latest book and theory - what will happen in Brazil's slums / megacities / favelas in the next two years when two international football events take place there?
Can the Kilcullen theory be applied? So watch and comment on Brazil as an example.
There are a number of relevant threads. Notably The David Kilcullen Collection:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=12934 and the Brazil violence in (merged thread), which has a number of news reports on the usually para-military policing of the favelas:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=2602
There is the small example of into the slums cited by Kilcullen, the multinational effort to detain a drug lord in Jamaica:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=10451
Mexico of course already has an increasingly violent problem:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=5370
It is worth reading a recent SWJ article A Proposed Framework for Appreciating Megacities: A US Army perspective:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...-perspective-0 One of the authors commented:
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We've looked at the recent favela ops, and certainly there is a lot to study there.
Flagg's post will come first after the thread is created.