Brazil to send troops into Rio de Janeiro's "favelas"

[Quetzal]

Brazil to send troops into Rio de Janeiro's "favelas"

The Brazilian government is preparing to send troops on to the streets of Rio de Janeiro following a sharp increase in violent crime involving drugs gangs in the city's sprawling favelas.

"The army will be used in Rio," said José Viegas, the defence minister. "The decision was taken by the president of the republic, who is sensitive to the violence to which the entire population of the state has been exposed."

The Rio de Janeiro state government has been pressing the federal government to send in the army for weeks. At Easter, a battle between rival gangs for control of the drugs trade in Rocinha, Rio's biggest favela, cost the lives of two policemen, four bystanders and at least eight drugs traffickers, according to the state security department.

A department official said troops would reinforce street patrols in eight high-risk areas until the end of 2004. She said the need for reinforcements followed a large number of rejections at the most recent round of police recruitment.

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[atre]

1. I was there about a year ago

I'm not sure if that's really even "news." The federal military police were patrolling the streets back then- they were everywhere.

And it was much, much worse in Sao Paulo, where we passed about a dozen prisons on our way from GRU airport into the city.