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| Police and army troops target five favelas in Rio de Janeiro during a pre-dawn crackdown on criminal gangs. |
Thousands of Brazilian army troops raided Rio de Janeiro slums in a
pre-dawn crackdown on crime gangs on Saturday, leaving parts of the city
looking like a war zone on the first anniversary of the opening of the Olympic
Games.
Five favelas were targeted by around 1,300 police and 3,600 troops in a
sweep starting at 4 am the Rio state security service said in a statement.
Their main goal was to stop gangs behind a surge in brazen robberies of
commercial trucks, with arrest warrants issued for 40 people. Rio state
authorities say there were 10,000 cases of cargo theft last year.
By late afternoon, 24 adults and two teens had been arrested and two
killed "in confrontations," Rio state security chief Robert Sa said.
A police officer was killed when a bus crashed into his vehicle with two
detainees inside.
Twenty-one vehicles, weapons, drugs and goods stolen from trucks were impounded.
But the decision to flood some of Rio's most dangerous streets with
heavily armed soldiers also reflected fears that nearly bankrupt post-Olympic
Rio is spinning out of control.
The troops were part of 8,500 deployed to the city last month in a tacit
acknowledgement that cash-strapped police have lost the ability to cope.
In Lins favela one of the many little-regulated, and often gang-plagued
communities of working class Brazilians that rise on the city's forest-clad
hills soldiers took positions at every crossroads and outside many alleyways.
Troops, backed by camouflaged armored personnel carriers, stood guard
with fingers on the triggers of assault rifles. Units of soldiers and SWAT
police also roamed the streets in open Jeeps and SUVs, pointing their weapons
out of car windows.
Everyone entering and leaving the favela, in northern Rio, was subjected
to an identity check and search, with men required to lift their shirts. One
man was questioned at length about a scar on his stomach and another man's bag
was searched only to find he was carrying a large Bible.
The orderly deployment and impressive firepower reassured some. At a
time of political and economic turmoil in Brazil, the military is regularly
cited as Brazil's most trusted institution.
"They bring security to us all. There's so much robbery, so much
shooting. With the soldiers, people here feel safer," said Luiza, a
resident of Lins, who like most others was too afraid to be fully identified.
Others, however, were upset at suddenly having to live in the middle of
what resembled military rule.
"There's an atmosphere of tension and fear," said Vanuza
Barroso da Silva, 23, who was leaving Lins to go to her job at a supermarket.
"They treat us as if we're trash," her father Roberto, 46, said
after going through the search.
Officials said the other favelas targeted were Camarista Meier, Morros
de Sao Joao and Engenho Novo in the north and Covanca in the west.
- They abandoned us -
The crackdown came a year to the day after President Michel Temer opened
the Olympics in a lavish ceremony at the Maracana football stadium, which is
close to Lins favela.
Rio was the first South American city to host the Games and although the
event passed off smoothly, a mixture of corruption scandals, near collapse in
the state budget and crime has combined into a serious hangover for what should
be one of Brazil's richest regions.
In the first half of this year, Rio tallied 3,457 homicides, the highest
level of violence since 2009 and 15 percent more than during the same period in
2016.
People are killed daily in shootouts between rival gangs competing for
control of the favelas or from police action. The shootings, often involving
high-powered rifles, also lead to numerous deaths and injuries from stray bullets.
Since the beginning of the year 93 police officers have been killed in
Rio state, while units complain of not having enough funds for fuel or even
toilet paper.
Brazilian Justice Minister Torquato Jardim said the damage done to
criminal groups would be "greater than the mere numbers" of arrests
and confiscations.
However, many favela residents fear that Saturday's operation will be
just one more in a long series of dramatic, but ultimately futile raids in
neighborhoods ravaged by poverty, government neglect and deeply rooted gangs.
"You can hardly go out for a beer in northern Rio," said
Marta, 40, in Lins.
Asked whether she feared the gangs or the authorities more, she
shrugged. "In either case it's a minority that has weapons," she
said.
Barroso da Silva scoffed at the Rio
authorities' vows of tough action. "They abandoned us," she said.
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