(Rio de Janeiro) Some 2,000 police officers were deployed Monday to 10 favelas in western Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an area plagued by territorial disputes between militias and drug traffickers, authorities said.
“There is no place where public authorities cannot enter. We are working to restore order,” Rio state Governor Claudio Castro said at a news conference.
One of the favelas concerned is the City of God (Cidade de Deus), famous thanks to the eponymous film by Fernando Meirelles (2002) and located near the Olympic Park of the 2016 Olympic Games.
AFP journalists noted a strong police presence in the favela on Monday from dawn, including officers from the Special Operations Battalion (Bope), an elite police force feared for its forceful raids. But residents were moving around the neighborhood normally.
Six people were killed during a police operation in the City of God two weeks ago.
Police raids are common in the favelas, densely populated poor neighborhoods. But experts consider that such operations have little effectiveness against criminal organizations.
The operation launched on Monday, of indefinite duration, aims to “end the war between trafficking and the militias in this area of western Rio,” the governor said.
He highlighted in particular the offensives of Comando Vermelho, one of the largest drug trafficking factions in the country, to “recover territories from the militias.”
The west of Rio is the historical cradle of the militias, formed about forty years ago by former police officers, who initially presented themselves as self-defense groups against drug trafficking.
But they operate like mafias, with sophisticated extortion systems, controlling gas distribution, internet access and cable television. More recently, they have also launched into arms and drug trafficking.
But Comando Vermelho has gained ground in recent years, extending its grip on 51.9% of the territories controlled by criminal groups in 2023, relegating the militias to 38.9%, according to a study published by the NGO Instituto Fogo Cruzado and the Federal University Fluminense.