Rio favela still wracked with fear and violence as Olympics 2016 approaches

[Guest tomcal]

From the London Telegraph, U.K.

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Osmar Paiva Camelo, who was a retired military police sergeant, was reportedly killed for supporting the pacification process to seize back control from drug gangs in Complexo da Maré, close to Rio's international airport.

Despite being occupied by 2,700 troops since April last year in the run up to the World Cup, shoot-outs and deaths in Maré have continued. Earlier this week, military police began to take over security operations from soldiers.

However, as the city builds towards next year's Olympic and Paralympic Games, Maré residents are disillusioned with the security forces and the climate as tense as ever.

"It's going to take decades to resolve," Caco said, keeping an eye on the door. "The expectation is uncertain."

Outside, skulking gang members keep watch on doorsteps and young men stroll the jaded warren-like streets, openly carrying handguns in public like they are an extension of their arms. Meanwhile, members of the community try to carry on their lives as normal.

A Brazilian marine takes part in an operation at the Vila Olimpica shantytown, in the Mare favela complex, in Rio de Janeiro, after a heavy shooting incident last month (AFP)

For years, Rio's notorious Comando Vermelho, or Red Command, has fought two rival gangs and police for supremacy over the red-brick maze of 16 communities that is home to 140,000 people.

And while the state's security forces installed special pacifying police units (UPPs) in 38 areas ahead of last summer's World Cup, Maré continued to be almost impenetrable because of its size, its territorial divisions and its violence.

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At the request of Rio's governor, President Dilma Rousseff granted the use of troops to try to finally bring the area under control with the intention of withdrawing them after the World Cup.

José Mariano Beltrame, Rio's state security secretary, struck a combative tone with drug gangs at the time and said: "We are taking another one of the territories they dominated, and if they continue reacting in this way, we will keep showing them that we are stronger, we have partners and we have the conditions to move forward in this way."

José Mariano Beltrame visits the favela (Gustavo Olivera)

But even after the army entered last April, there was at least one murder a week in the police area that includes Maré.

As well as Mr Camelo's death, a 21-year-old army officer was also killed during the occupation.

Michel Augusto Mikami was shot in the head in October when patrolling the favela, while an armoured vehicle also lost control when it came under fire from traffickers.

An Amnesty International report on human rights around the world released in February cited the military occupation and violence in Maré.

"While a discourse of violence and a state of exception, which corroborates the perception that the lives of some are worth more than others, prevails, we are living in barbarism," said Atila Roque, director of Amnesty in Brazil.

Mr Roque said everyone was losing out: "The state, which puts its agents at risk and gives up confronting crime with intelligence, loses, and society, brutalised and trapped by the fear of violence, loses."

After a year of army occupation, the security forces have adopted a much more tentative posture as Rio's military police only now begin to take over from the soldiers.

On Wednesday, officers entered two of the more peaceful communities Praia de Ramos and Roquete Pinto in the first of three stages to introduce a permanent police presence in the favela.

But many are doubtful that this will bring an end to Maré's problems.

"The police have a history of corruption," said Caco, who was born and raised in Timbau, one of the communities within Maré. "The army occupation wasn't as bad because they didn't ask for money from residents or try to arrest people.

"Historically, police treat people in favelas like second class citizens so it's going to depend.

"The community is divided. The older people think it's going to be better but the young think it's going to be worse."

Caco, who grew up in the community, said endemic drug trafficking had grown in the favela since he was young.

"In my day, trafficking was much smaller, it was hidden," he added. "Now, it's bigger, it's more visible and there are a lot of guns. It has evolved like every industry."

Maré was not the only favela to see an upsurge in violence and conflict, 16 months before Rio is once again thrust to the world's attention with the Olympics and Paralympics.

A 10-year-old boy was among five shot and killed in Complexo do Alemão, another of the city's largest favelas, between Wednesday and Thursday.

A sniper keeps a watchful eye (Gustavo Olivera)

Graphic images and videos circulated showing the bleeding body of Eduardo de Jesus Ferreira as well as footage that appeared to show police using sound bombs and pepper spray.

Rio's special operations police squads BOPE and Choque had been sent into the favela after a police base was attacked and set alight while residents described it as a "war".

Speaking during a visit to Praia de Ramos in Maré after Wednesday's first police transition, Rio's security secretary said the points of resistance for public security were the larger favelas such as Maré, Alemão and Rocinha, which is home to an estimated 200,000 people.

"In the bigger favelas, we have to adjust because it's very difficult for everything to happen at once there," Mr Beltrame said. "Some of these favelas are bigger than some towns in England.

"The UPPs exist to resolve this, to bring about this transformation. In the bigger areas, we're going to have bigger problems.

"Public security is the first right and the police is the first organ to enter but it's not just the police, it's health and education as well."

Mr Beltrame was under no illusion of the challenge facing Rio's military police as they go into the second and third stages of the transition with the aim of providing a 24-hour patrol within 60 days.

He said the first communities to be occupied by police were those that already had the conditions to support public services while the rest of the favela would be more complicated.

"It's going to be more difficult," he added. "There are 140,000 people and three criminal factions.

"It's like a patient who needs a big operation. The surgery must be done otherwise it's going to be harder for the patient to improve."

Colonel Frederico Caldas, the commander of the Pacifying Police Coordination (CPP), was cautiously optimistic but equally restrained.

"Our expectation is that in 60 days, it will be possible to implement the next UPP," he said. "This will be a great challenge."

Speaking to local press, he added: "We have an idea of the size of the challenge but we have to show our determination.

"There's a climate of pessimism around pacification. If it goes wrong, everyone is going down a hole: police, society, everyone."

The expectation is that resistance to police presence in Maré is unlikely to reach the scale of conflict in Complexo do Alemão in which almost 3,000 police and troops entered the favela in 2010.

But for many, including Caco, peace feels like a long way off.

"My expectations are just hopes," he said. "The community has to participate. I want things to get better here."