Brazil: violence in (merged thread)

[AdamG]

The government of Brazil sent 3,000 troops into Rocinha, the hillside shanty town overlooking Rio de Janeiro, in an effort to drive out crime and violence in advance of the 2014 World Cup.

They encountered little resistance as they moved in at 4 a.m., The New York Times reported, despite the neighborhood's "notorious" reputation. Indeed, the move by the government, blessed with the dissonant formal name "Shock of Peace," is as much public relations as police work. Troops alone won't correct bad infrastructure and endemic poverty.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/globa...st-slum/44921/

[bourbon]

Rio: the fight for the favelas - Brazil’s most famous city has launched a huge offensive against drug gangs and militias before the next World Cup and Olympics, By Misha Glenny. FT Magazine, 2 November 2012.

The integration strategy and efforts by the state and city hall are divided into two stages: UPP Policing and UPP Social.

The first stage sees crack forces storm the favelas in an intentionally intimidating act of urban shock and awe, followed by the establishment of a large civilian police presence inside the favelas for the first time in history.

When occupying Complexo de Alemão, in November 2010, the authorities decided against taking any chances: the army and navy were deployed to secure the perimeter of the entire area as the special forces went in search of the drug kingpins.

Everybody knew that the pacification of two of the city’s largest favelas, Alemão and Rocinha, was of overriding significance. “We chose those territories that were the critical nodes of criminal activity quite specifically, by assessing the fire power of the factions running them,” explains Beltrame. The greater the firepower, the higher up the list for pacification.

Interesting read.

[ccmaximus]

Another wave of attacks in Sao Paulo has been going on. Bus burned today, with all attacks emanating by one single criminal organization that has some readily identifiable political objectives:

http://noticias.uol.com.br/album/alb...to=2#fotoNav=2

The leaders of the said organization have been commanding murders of law enforcement agents. 90 so far this year.

A very shocking video of an attack against a police sergeant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kalcxLjh4ts

These murders were commanded from within prison cells. This was an electoral year, and similar attacks have been constant in every other electoral year.

[davidbfpo]

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

[davidbfpo]

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:

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:

a Special Operations Battallion (BOPE) sergeant was killed

Not seen these figures before, they are rather sobering:

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?

[davidbfpo]

Not unexpected I fear, the opening passage from a NYT report:

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:

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.

[davidbfpo]

The title comes from the closing line in the linked article, which was headlined:

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