Brazil police mount new operation in Rio favelas

Some 2,000 police were deployed Monday to ten favelas in Rio de Janeiro to crack down on conflict between narcos and militias, authorities said.

Armored cars and officers wielding assault rifles fanned out from dawn in densely populated communities such as Cidade de Deus, made famous in the 2002 movie City of God, removing cement barricades built by criminals to control traffic.

"There is no place that public authorities cannot enter. We are working to restore order," Rio state governor Claudio Castro told a press conference.

He later said twenty people had been arrested at the start of the operation, with no clashes reported.

However, he said there had been complaints of "possible leaks" ahead of the operation.

Security will be a key issue in October, when Brazil holds local elections for mayors and councilors in nearly 6,000 municipalities in the country, including Rio.

Police raids are common in the favelas, vibrant communities plagued by high levels of insecurity due to the presence of drug traffickers and paramilitary militias.

In early July, six people were shot dead during an operation in Ciudad de Dios.

Security experts criticize the police operations, which often end in gunfights and have an outsized impact on the local population, while barely making a dent against gangs.

The open-ended operation launched Monday aims to "end the war between drug trafficking and militias in this area of western Rio," the governor said.

He said the Comando Vermelho drug trafficking cartel, the most powerful in the Rio region, had been trying to "recover territories from the militias" in the area.

The militias first formed around four decades ago when former police officers and soldiers banded together to offer protection from violent drug cartels.

They then transformed into powerful criminal organizations that control large swathes of the city, extorting money from residents and venturing into drug and arms trafficking.

Some 18 percent of Rio de Janeiro and its metropolitan area are under the control of armed groups, according to a 2023 report from the Fogo Cruzado Institute and the Fluminense Federal University.

Comando Vermelho controls more than half of this territory, and the militias around 39 percent.