Two thousand police and military occupied two violent favelas of Rio

It was after 6 am when a powerful uniformed contingent, composed of soldiers and Navy military police surrounded the Manguinhos favela in northern Rio de Janeiro. Fifteen minutes later, the 2,000 men of the force were scattered by neighboring Jacarezinho. The operation had a surgical precision, without firing a single shot .The advance set of agents and marine taking strategic areas of these two complexes marginal, was continued with the installation of containers that will, over the next days, to temporarily accommodate the Battalion Pacifying Police Unit (UPP), must restore calm and security to the two communities. There were those who heard sounds of bullets. But, according to the commissioner Marcos Vinicius Braga, "may have been shot by the criminals who shot into the air at the time of the flight. Keep in mind that if we do these is because they are pockets of dangerous criminals. " The region is a set of Manguinhos favelas began to degrade economic emptying. From the 80 industries that spanned the region such as milk, or even an army barracks, were abandoned and informal occupations gained ground, with precarious constructions. The neighborhoods were transformed into drug territory, which increased violence and clashes with police, and between the disputed territories bands. Entering both complexes, with 24 tanks and helicopters , the military and police had removed barricades that drug traffickers had set before leaving the place. They met with walls painted with slogans against the occupation police. They saw littered streets, public lighting lamps hanging from old wires and, worse, houses adjacent to open sewers.Despite being an ancient settlement, in lack Manguinhos asphalt and sanitation. Colonel Frederico Caldas, Military Police, summarized: "They are 30 years of neglect of this town, where all kinds of criminals proliferated and the population was forced to live with this." The Secretary of Public Security of the state of Rio de Janeiro, José Mariano Beltrame, gave no relevance to the few arrests executed, only three drug traffickers arrested were made during the occupation. "We're not concerned with that: we do not want a criminal police as a trophy.The most important thing is to return the territory to more than 70,000 people living in it, without firing shots. " Beltrame, the official appointed by the governor Sergio Cabral to "clean" the drug trade in the favelas of Rio, is determined to leave a city free of the scourge for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, but with less "damage side "possible. "The remarkable thing about this operation was, in fact, the police intelligence that preceded it." Both he and the security forces know they occupy is just the first step towards the eradication of the sheaves. "We know there are many weapons and drugs. But we are already in the field and look forward to the participation of society, "said Fernando Veloso, Civil Police. The first response of the inhabitants of these slums was cautious. A few hours after the start of the operation, traders were encouraged to raise the blinds. Some mentioned that the uniformed presence can change the scenario of the favela. For one thing, a hundred paco addicts were sent to temporary shelters. And the children, to hospitals. The governor reiterated that this action is ephemeral: "Here we occupy the same way as we did in other communities such as City of God. After entering inaugurated Police Pacification Units, which have resulted in a process leading to stable communities. " Rio has already 28 of these UPP since late 2008.