Rio slums brace for more violence in drug crackdown

Residents of Rio’s slums braced for more violence yesterday as hundreds of soldiers and police joined a widening crackdown on drug gangs that has killed at least 31 people in six days.

Security forces patrolled the entrances to the Vila Cruzeiro slum, a day after military vehicles led by six tank-like M113 armed personnel carriers for the first time penetrated the pockmarked streets run by drug traffickers.

Police said they forced the criminals to flee uphill to another slum, and claimed to have wrested control of the densely populated area back from drug gangs.

Authorities are seeking to impose order on the notoriously violent slums – known here as favelas – before Brazil plays host to two of the planet’s largest sporting events: the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics two years later.

TV helicopters filmed scores of armed men scrambling up the surrounding hills toward the Morro do Alemao favela at the height of Thursday’s crackdown.

Roberto Sa, a senior official with the state of Rio de Janeiro, said that soldiers were surrounding the area and police were patrolling the entrances to Morro do Alemao to prevent the traffickers from escaping.