 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Feb 6, 2011 Hundreds of police and military troops early Sunday occupied nine slums in central Rio de Janeiro that had been in the hands of drug traffickers, in the first such operation since November. The nearly 1,000 civilian, military and federal police backed by 17 armored vehicles, four amphibian vehicles and marine riflemen faced little opposition in the two-hour operation that kicked off at dawn, officials said. "The situation is calm and we have completed the first part of the operation -- controlling the territory," military spokesman Colonel Lima Castro told CBN radio. The security forces were also launching a month-long search for weapons and drugs in the now occupied shantytowns home to some 26,000 inhabitants, part of a plan by authorities to regain control of Rio's slums. The city, known for both its beauty and its endemic violence, is the scheduled venue for both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. A first counternarcotics operation was launched in November in the Complexo de Alemao favelas, a bastion of drug traffickers in northern Rio vanquished by 2,600 police and military troops. "Thank God, the occupation took place peacefully and the community did not suffer," Morro dos Prazeres favela neighborhood association Elisa Brandao told O Globo newspaper. She said drug traffickers had left the neighborhood in recent days to avoid confrontation with police who had warned inhabitants about the operation. Rio state's Public Security Secretary Mariano Beltrame welcomed the peaceful takeover. "The priority is to conquer the territory without having more stray bullets, or dead and wounded civilians," he told reporters, noting the police did not fire a single shot and encountered no drug traffickers.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters A world of storm and tempest When the Earth Quakes
New Approach Needed To Prevent Major 'Systemic Failures'West Lafayette IN (SPX) Feb 02, 2011 A Purdue University researcher is proposing development of a new cross-disciplinary approach for analyzing and preventing systemic failures in complex systems that play a role in calamities ranging from huge power blackouts to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the subprime mortgage crisis. "The striking similarities in such catastrophes necessitates a broader perspective to better unde ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook
