BRAZIL’S GOVERNMENT has scored its biggest victory in three decades of conflict with powerful drug traffickers who control large swathes of Rio de Janeiro.
In the early morning 2,600 police, soldiers and marines using armoured personnel carriers invaded and occupied the Complexo do Alemão – the German Complex – one of the city’s biggest shantytowns and a stronghold of heavily armed gangs who have turned parts of the city into a no-go area for the security forces.
The operation follows Thursday’s conquest of the nearby Vila Cruzeiro shantytown, or favela, and means that the Comando Vermelho, or Red Command, the biggest of Rio’s three main drug gangs, has in four days lost control of two of its most important areas.
The Complexo do Alemão had been surrounded since Thursday night after dozens of gang members from Vila Cruzeiro fled there after their favela was occupied by police. The government demanded that all traffickers in Alemão surrender before they invaded and several local community groups sought to persuade gang members to give themselves up. But local media reported that of the 600 gunmen thought to be in Alemão only one leader, known as Mr M, surrendered, prompting police to go in at 8am local time.
Despite several exchanges of gunfire, the operation went relatively smoothly as most gang members appear to have dumped their weapons and sought to melt into the local population. Police recovered large quantities of guns as well as several tonnes of drugs. A house to house search is now under way for more weapons, drugs and suspects. A trafficker condemned for the notorious murder of a Brazilian journalist in 2002 was among those arrested.
Sergio Cabral, Rio’s governor, said the operation “turned a page in Rio’s history” but warned there was still much to do to overcome “a political failure [and] a social crisis” in Rio’s favelas.
With the city preparing to host the World Cup final in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, Mr Cabral has instituted a policy of placing permanent police posts in favelas in Rio in order to take back control of the slums from traffickers.