Saree On Denise Milani Body

Attack on favela

[map of the attacks on RJ]

Rio de Janeiro last month has been the scene of a real war between the Brazilian state represented by more than two thousand federal police and drug traffickers who had many of their operational bases in Complexo do Alemão .

The Complexo do Alemão favela is a set of which extends north of Rio de Janeiro. Since the 80's was a crossroads of trade in firearms and drugs. In the last month's clashes and incidents caused by the drug traffickers have intesificati and that is why the Brazilian state, just released by the presidential election, has decided to act by deploying a large number of vehicles and men.

During the fighting in fire last month died more than a hundred people, including policemen, drug traffickers and people.

Many see these sudden attacks in the beginning of a war on organized crime that could destabilize the positions captured by drug traffickers for the division of the proceeds of drug sales, but more importantly, the beginning of a "cleansing" (social?) ahead of World Cup and the Olympics that Brazil will host in 2014 and 2010. In fact there is already talk of "next goal" which is precisely the Rocinha slum, which is said to be the largest favela in Latin America.

After a month of fighting, the police managed to occupy the complex and to control the main entrances to the favela. The area will be manned by the army for another eight months to be subsequently replaced by the nuclei of pacificadora policia.

The experience of China and South Africa have shown that events like the Olympics or World Cup, which have a huge economic and reach media for the host country, can not reconcile the possibility of a coherent development and the huge social problems . In the coming weeks we'll post the developments in this story.