Rio's militarized police occupy gang-run favelas to 'reclaim territory'

Hundreds of heavily armed military police launched an operation on Wednesday to occupy the Jacarezinho neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, as authorities follow up on a promise to retake control of city's gang-run, poverty stricken favelas.

According to a Reuters report, heavily armed police drove armored personnel vehicles into the neighborhood, patrolling the neighbhorhood and entering homes in a four-hour-long operation.

Rio’s Governor, Claudio Castro said the operation was the beginning of a new offensive to transform the city’s violent slums – echoing the rhetoric of the Police Pacifying Units (UPP) that helped clear out violent gangs ahead of the 2016 Olympics.

Castro took to Twitter to say the operation was part of a government program dubbed "Integrated City," aimed at transforming communities that are at the mercy of criminal gangs and drug traffickers.

 "It took months to design a program that would change the lives of the people, giving them dignity and opportunity. The operations are just the beginning of this transformation that goes far beyond security," he wrote. 

The spokesman for the state’s military police force reported that there were no violent encounters during the operation – noting that the large number of forces deployed served as a deterrent against any armed criminal response.

Violence is no stranger to Jacarezinho, however, and a police raid in May resulted in 29 deaths, drawing sharp criticism from human rights groups across Brazil.

Nevertheless, police have said that they plan to occupy other nearby favelas -- such as Manguinhos, Bandeira 2 and Conjunto Morar Carioca – in the coming weeks.

Castro took to Twitter to explain that he was planning on releasing details of his administrations upcoming plans to restore security and "improve the lives of those who live in these areas".

The first UPP occupations of Rio’s favelas occurred in 2008 and dozens more were rolled out across the state over the next decade. The so-called “pacification projects” -- which focus on community policing methods such as engaging with residents in order to discourage gunfights – were widely successful early on and gained international praise.

By 2018, however, the program had suffered budget cuts and inconsistent support from corrupt state and local governments and the federal government opted for a military intervention to take back control of Rio’s favelas. With the election of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s federal government has once again set its sights on fighting organized crime.

In 2019, Rio police killed a record 1,814 people.