Alto Vidigal Reopens After Legal Dispute
By Andrew Willis, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The popular Casa Alto Vidigal guesthouse has reopened its doors after an ownership dispute between expatriates caused the business to close for several months. Coverage of the case has boosted interest in the venue, says the founder of the guesthouse, with other investors increasingly [...]
Favelas Attract New Year Revelers in Rio
By Andrew Willis, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A further indication of the security improvements in the city of Rio this year is that many residents and tourists opted to celebrate the New Year festivities in the city’s ‘pacified’ favela communities instead of Copacabana Beach. Four years after the Police Pacification Unit [...]
New UPP Head to Make Changes: Daily
By Nicole Froio, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The new Police Pacifying Units (UPPs) commander Colonel Paulo Henrique Azevedo has announce his first order of business. He plans to decentralize the power of the existing 28 UPPs by opening eight regional coordination offices that will provide local leadership for each different community. Colonel [...]
More Violence in Complexo do Alemão
By Andrew Willis, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Violence in Rio’s Complexo do Alemão continues with the death of two police officers over the past week. The sprawling complex, home to an estimated 70,000 across fourteen favelas in the Zona Norte (North Zone), was invaded by the army in 2010 but sporadic [...]
Fourth Anniversary of First UPP in Rio
By Andrew Willis, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This month marks the fourth anniversary of Rio de Janeiro’s inaugural Police Pacification Unit (Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora, or UPP), installed in the Santa Marta favela community on December 19, 2008. The move, part of the state government’s pacification program, has helped bring greater [...]
Rio Police to Use Less Assault Weapons
By Andrew Willis, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Military police in Rio are gradually replacing their rifles with non-lethal weapons such as electro-shock taser guns, according to an announcement by the government of Rio de Janeiro State last week. The move will mainly affect police on radio-patrol missions in pacified favelas. “In total, [...]
UPP Social Forum in Rocinha Favela
By Andrew Willis, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A public meeting between government officials and members of the local community took place in Rio’s largest favela, Rocinha, on Thursday, November 1st. The forum is part of the UPP Social program, designed to complement greater policing in ‘pacified’ favelas with an improvement in social [...]
Wealth Growing in Some Favela Communities
By Mary Carroll, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the same way that distinction can be drawn between the lower, middle and upper classes of most neighborhoods, the economic differences are becoming more apparent in some of Rio’s favela communities. Following the general dynamics of the city, the favelas of Zona Sul (South [...]
UPP Favelas See 23% Business Growth
By Andrew Willis, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Businesses in favelas with Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) are showing a trend towards greater growth, according to a recent study by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). The Brazilian higher education and research center looked at five favelas in Rio de Janeiro that have been ‘pacified’ [...]
Jacarezinho, Manguinhos Occupied: Daily
By Chesney Hearst, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalions) assisted by Navy tanks, military police (PMs) and civil police and Federal Highway Police aircraft successfully occupied the Zona Norte (North Zone) favelas of Jacarezinho and Manguinhos in the early hours of Sunday, October 14th, 2012. The night leading up [...]
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