Rolling out helicopter-backed armored tanks, police in Rio launched a broad crackdown on gangs and drug-trafficking groups Tuesday in 20 slums, killing at least two suspects, authorities said.
"This Tuesday, all police are on the streets," said Colonel Lima Castro, of the Militarized Police, adding that weapons and drugs had been seized. So far, 11 people have been arrested, authorities said.
Hundreds of heavily armed officers had moved into at least 20 of the city's hillside slums, called favelas, by midday.
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"We will do whatever it takes so that the good guys defeat those who prefer to live lives of crime," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, referring to the offensive at a Petrobras event in Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo state.
Security forces are keen to show some signs of progress on urban unrest ahead of this sultry seaside city's hosting of the 2014 soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
In many of the poor neighborhoods perched on steep slopes, businesses shuttered their doors and streets largely emptied out.
Late Monday, Rio governor Sergio Cabral had asked for federal backup amid deteriorating conditions, with suspected traffickers and gang members torching cars and opening machine gunfire on police mini-stations.
"They are trying to intimidate. But we are not going to go backward, and we will continue to win back territory" from traffickers, Cabral said earlier.
"A thief pointed his rifle at my head, made me get out of my car, while another guy showered it with gasoline and then set it ablaze," said resident Jose Augusto da Rocha, who was caught up in the unrest on Sunday.
"The traffickers' goal is to terrorize the population. They are losing their old turf to the government, and they are losing ground to the militia," which are para-police groups, sociologist Claudio Beato told the O Globo newspaper.
The groups known as "militias" are made up largely of off-duty firefighters, police and prison guards, and are tightening their grip over much of the city, emerging as a new mafia to seize control of more than 100 of the city's 250 largest shantytowns, according to a report published this month.
By way of comparison, the Brazilian city's largest drug cartel, the Commando Vermelho, controls just 55, it said.
