After days of preparation, Brazilian security forces early yesterday launched a raid against a slum where between 500 and 600 drug traffickers are holed up and refuse to surrender.
Police forces, supported by tanks and helicopters, moved into Favela da Grota amid a heavy exchange of fire.
About 2,600 airborne troops, marines and members of elite police units were taking part in the operation targeting a lawless group of slums dubbed Complexo de Alemao.
“This is our D-Day,” military police spokesman Colonel Lima Castro told reporter in a reference of to the historic allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. “We will return this community to the people of Rio de Janeiro.”
On Saturday, the traffickers and police fought a pitched gun battle for around 30 minutes, with Military Police Commander General Mario Duarte telling reporters that authorities had the criminals “outgunned.”
There was “no possibility the drug traffickers can succeed,” he said.
Trouble with organized crime is nothing new in Rio. However, there is a new sense of urgency in a Brazil that has emerged as a global economic and political player, and soon will host the world at home.
Authorities are seeking to impose order on notoriously violent slums before Brazil hosts what are two of the planet’s largest sporting events: the World Cup in 2014 the Olympic Games two years later.
The slums, known here as favelas, are home to more than 2 million people.
“We will not be losing any ground in our move to bring peace to Rio,” Duarte said, adding that authorities were awaiting surrenders. “We are getting close to the end of getting the traffickers in Alemao.”
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim authorized the deployment of 10 military armored vehicles, two air force helicopters and 800 soldiers, to reinforce the 17,500 police already engaged in the crackdown.
Some 300 federal police were also dispatched to bolster local forces.
Authorities were not expecting an easy fight in Alemao. Some 400,000 people live there — more than in many Brazilian cities — on steep hillside terrain, with bad visibility and many dead-end streets.
On Thursday, police forced gang members out of the Vila Cruzeiro slum with the aid of tank-like M113 armored personnel carriers and claimed to have taken control of the densely populated area.
However, scores of armed men scrambled up the hills surrounding Vila Cruzeiro toward the Morro do Alemao favela at the height of Thursday’s crackdown, an indication that the fighting is far from over.
Roberto Sa, a senior official with the state of Rio de Janeiro, said that soldiers and police were surrounding the area of Morro do Alemao to prevent the traffickers from escaping.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and president-elect Dilma Rousseff both voiced support for the police operation and offered federal backing.
On Friday, local traders had cautiously opened their shops — but they were still fearful that they would be forced to close if shooting started.
“I’m terrified,” said Mariza, 44, who owns a toy store in Vila Cruzeiro. “I opened for business because I have to make money to pay my rent and my bills, but I might have to close again in 10 minutes.”
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