Brazil: Police combing the stronghold of the narcos, Lula decided to win “the war”

Written by Sandeep Nehra

The police continued on Monday its sweeps of the Complexo do Alemao, the bastion of drug traffickers captured by police and army in a decisive battle against trafficking in Rio.

In less than two hours Sunday, 2,600 paratroopers and shock troops of police, backed by tanks and helicopters, took control of the Complexo do Alemao, a set of fifteen favelas where tens of thousands of people.

Before the numerical superiority in weaponry and security forces, some 500 drug traffickers who were holed up there no resistance. Police said the majority had fled, including sewers, before the attack on Sunday.

After thirty years of reign of drug traffickers in the favelas, that unprecedented operation in Brazil marked the willingness of authorities to pacify the city hosting the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose term ends on January 1, announced he would visit the Complexo do Alemao pacified. He said he would visit “with a lot more fun” and “much more peace because we will win this war.”

Sunday evening, the Security Secretary Jose Beltrame Rio said that the offensive would continue against traffickers. “We won a battle but not war,” he said, adding that the next targets would be the Rocinha and Vidigal, two large favelas in the southern residential area.

But today, the police do not have enough troops to occupy the conquered territory. The state Governor Sergio Cabral, Rio has asked the army to stay in Complexo do Alemao for six months, the time to put up police units peacemaker (UPP).

Thirteen favelas among the thousands that Rio has benefited from the program that aims to bring peace and restore basic services in poor communities. This is in response to this policy that traffickers have launched a week ago a wave of attacks and vehicle fires.

Monday morning, police and military controlled all persons entering or leaving the Complexo do Alemao and continued their excavations, house by house, searching for hidden traffickers, weapons and drugs.

“Some were arrested when they tried to escape dressed as religious or uniformed municipal employees,” said the commander of Special Operations Battalion (Bope), Paulo Henrique Moraes.

He admitted that many had managed to escape by using the general sewerage system.

He said more than 40 people were arrested Sunday. The press has also reported three traffickers were killed, a figure not confirmed by police.

Forty tons of marijuana were confiscated, which is the largest seizure of this drug in Brazil.

The Commissioner of Civil Police Veluzzo Fernando told AFP that the cooperation of the people was essential.

“People are tired of so much violence and what are their specific information that allowed us to discover caches of weapons and drugs.

But in the favela, residents remain skeptical. “I’ve often seen the police come and go, and the bandits return,” said one trader who declined to identify.

“I hope this will improve, but I fear that the police go away and everything to be as before. I’m afraid of reprisals from drug traffickers,” he said

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