By Alexandre Loureiro
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Hundreds of heavily-armed police occupied the Jacarezinho neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday morning in a renewed effort to bring security and public services to “favela” slums dominated by gangs of drug dealers, authorities said.
Governor Claudio Castro said the operation was the start of a new offensive to transform poor areas, echoing the rhetoric of the Police Pacifying Units (UPP) that displaced violent gangs in the city ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games.
Rio’s Military Police said there were no violent encounters in the operation that had started in two favelas. A spokesman said the large number of police forces deployed deterred any armed response from the gangs.
Jacarezinho is a sprawling favela on the violent north side of Rio, Brazil’s second largest city, where a police raid in May resulted in 29 deaths, including an officer, and drew sharp criticism https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-judge-sees-signs-arbitrary-execution-rio-police-raid-2021-05-07 from human rights groups.
Police said they plan to occupy other nearby favelas, such as Manguinhos, Bandeira 2 and Conjunto Morar Carioca.
Castro said on Twitter that he would give details on Saturday of further plans to restore security and “improve the lives of those who live in these areas.”
(Reporting by Alexandre Loureiro; Additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo; Editing by Brad Haynes and Andrew Cawthorne)
