More than 1,000 police occupied two major Rio shantytowns on Monday in an effort to end a brimming drug war that has killed 10 people since Friday.
Hillsides echoed with fireworks and gunfire above the Rocinha favela, or shantytown, early Monday as police entered the slum. Two alleged drug dealers were killed in a shootout with police and five men were arrested, police said.
Police also moved into the Vidigal slum, which, like Rocinha, overlooks the city's wealthiest neighborhoods and trendy beaches.
PHOTO: AP
"We're going to tighten the belt around the favela more and more. We're going to push them deeper and deeper, point by point, and soon we'll have the area totally controlled," said Rio state police Colonel Renato Hottz, who is in charge of the operation.
Meanwhile, drug gangs fired on a helicopter that was flying over a slum on the city's north side, injuring two policemen and forcing an emergency landing, the state security office said. Police said the shooting was unrelated to the crackdown in Vidigal and Rocinha.
The drug war broke out Friday, when gang members from Vidigal attempted to invade Rocinha to wrest control of the trade in illegal narcotics, mainly cocaine and marijuana.
Sporadic shootouts between drug gangs and police have erupted since then and the violence in the slums -- which straddle the main roads dividing the city's south and west sides -- cut Rio in two.
On Friday, a female motorist was killed in the crossfire between the two gangs. Two other bystanders also were killed, while police said the remaining victims were drug traffickers.
Some 40 heavily armed drug gang members escaped a police dragnet on Sunday by hiding in the forest that surrounds the Rocinha slum, police said.
Many of Rocinha's 56,000 residents fled to avoid the violence. The slum, which is usually relatively calm despite its thriving drug trade, is the largest of Rio's 600-plus shantytowns.
Guests at the beach front Intercontinental Hotel were shocked to see red and blue tracer bullets streaking across the night sky, according to the O Globo newspaper.
Rio's Mayor Cesar Maia criticized state police officials on Monday, and called for federal intervention to help keep the peace.
"I think the federal government should consider declaring a state of alert in Rio de Janeiro, the state security department has shown itself incapable of controlling the situation," Maia told reporters.
Rio de Janeiro state Governor Rosinha Matheus and state security secretary Anthony Garotinho, who is Matheus' husband, declined to comment on the situation.
Federal Justice Minster Marcio Thomaz Bastos said he had spoken twice with Matheus on Monday and was sending an aide to Rio to discuss the situation.
"The federal government will use all means necessary to maintain order and peace," Bastos said at a news conference in Brasilia, the nation's capital. He added that the federal government had not ruled out sending in the army.
Lieutenant-Governor Luiz Paulo Conde said the state was considering building walls 3m high around the two slums to contain the violence.
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