MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Army to ensure a peaceful Carnival

With the support of the Armed Forces, Brazilian Police have launched a huge security operation to protect the carnival in Rio de Janeiro which has been threatened by spiralling violence between drugs gangs.

Up to 28,000 policemen will be in the streets to protect Carnival celebrations that begin this Friday and are also an important income source for the country. Drug gangs have burned and machine gunned buses, attacked police stations and set off small bombs in the beachfront with hotels packed with tourists.

"They've chosen the worst moment," said Jose Eduardo Guinle, Director of Rio's Tourism Agency, insisting that Carnival will be celebrated since this "is our big chance to recover the image of the city abroad."

Rio authorities blame the city's largest drug gang, the Red Command, for the current surge in violence, saying the orders were given by its leader, Fernandinho Beira-Mar - known as Seaside Freddy - who is currently in jail. The gang is apparently reacting to tough police action threatening their control of many shanty towns. But the latest violence has hit high income areas of the city usually immune from gang-related incidents and in the middle of the city's main celebration when traditionally enemies put down their weapons.

Some crime experts believe the gangs might also be trying to distract police from big drug or arms shipments, or showing their strength in order to demand better conditions for some of their bosses in prison. In a recent raid the police seized mortars and automatic weapons.

"Criminals have acquired social control through the dissemination of fear," said Walter Maierovitch, head of Brazilian Institute for Crime Research.

However, the president Lula da Silva administration decision to send the Army as a back up force to fight drug related crime in Rio do Janerio is controversial. Previous experiences even when the country was under military rule did not prove effective. Not so many years ago a hard-line no-nonsense general was named head of the Police force in Rio with the purpose of putting an end to the gang warfare and drugs trade. In a daring demonstration of power the gangs had the general's luggage stolen from him when he arrived in Rio airport.

Besides, a recent report aired in the Brazilian Congress indicates that the majority of the gang's heavy equipment and most deadly weapons belonged to the Brazilian military. They were either stolen or smuggled out of the barracks or sold by the same soldiers to the gangsters.