By Stephen Eisenhammer, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - The 22nd Police Pacification Unit (UPP) has been inaugurated for the favela communities of Adeus and Baiana, which neighbor Complexo do Alemão in Rio de Janeiro’s Zona Norte (North Zone), where pacification forces have struggled to curtail drug trafficking and violence. The inauguration was led [...]
By Stephen Eisenhammer, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Another important step was taken Monday in Rio’s attempts to increase security in the city ahead of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, as the tourist police (BPTur) and the Federal University of Fluminense (UFF) inaugurated the first class of a new [...]
By Stephen Eisenhammer, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Rocinha, widely considered Brazil’s largest favela community has been occupied since November as part of the pacification program. In recent months the favela has dominated the headlines again with an increase in violence though, and so it is welcome news that the community is hosting [...]
By Stephen Eisenhammer, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The family of a fifteen-year-old boy shot on Sunday evening in Fazendinha, a favela which forms part of the Complexo do Alemão in Rio’s Zona Norte (North Zone), blame the police for the attack and have said they will sue the government over the incident. The [...]
By Ségolène Poirier, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Military Police (Polícia Militar, PM) are planning on forming 7,000 new recruits by the end of this year. The main goal is to reach 60,000 PMs – 16,000 more than today – by 2016, and ensure security for the major events like the 2014 [...]
By Ségolène Poirier, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The first UPP (Police Pacification Unit) installation in Complexo do Alemão began on Wednesday, April 18th at two locations with a total of 660 military police officers set to patrol sixteen communities. The initiative is the first step in plans to install a total of [...]
By Zoë Roller, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – While the UPP (Police Pacification Unit) program in Rio has had many successes in the past few years confronting drug trafficking in the favelas, the surrounding metropolitan region has seen crime rates rise as criminals flee the city. The number of arrests in outlying areas [...]
By Zoë Roller, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Government and police officials are developing new anti-corruption measures, spurred in part by recent events in Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio’s Zona Sul (South Zone). A UPP (Police Pacification Unit) is slated to be installed in Rocinha this year, but in addition to the [...]
By Sarah de Sainte Croix, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Corporal Rodrigo Alves Cavalcante, a Military Police (PM) officer with the Batalhão de Choque (Shock Batalion), was shot and killed in Rocinha. He becomes the first police officer, and the ninth person in total, to [...]
By Zoë Roller, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A series of recent murders in Rocinha, including the shooting of the president of a neighborhood Residents’ Association, have lead police to speculate that the community is suffering from drug gang conflicts. The murder victims were all suspected of involvement with drug trade, and two [...]
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