MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Olympics’ Rio do Janeiro faces a seven year battle to clean the city

The marvellous city was again world headlines but not precisely for Olympic shooting competitions

The death toll of a weekend shootout in Rio do Janeiro shanty towns between police forces and drug dealers climbed to 25 with the discovery of several bodies, --one of them in a supermarket cart--, and the death of a third police officer from a downed helicopter.

Among the dead are three elite sharp shooters patrolling with the downed helicopter, three party goers returning home and 19 alleged drug dealers. Eight of the bodies were found after the battle was over in near by woods.

“These are the remains of Saturday’s fighting” said a spokesperson from the Rio do Janeiro military police. An estimated 2.000 police forces have gone into the area of the shootings in the shanty towns looking for drug gangs’ members and those responsible for shooting down the helicopter.

Apparently the shootings erupted over the weekend when rival gangs fought for drugs distribution turf which in turn forced the display of police forces including the helicopter which was downed with machine gun fire. Attempting an emergency landing the chopper exploded.

The official number of wounded is seven, five of them policemen. The drug gangs also torched eight public transport buses when they began withdrawing from the combat area.

Shootings and killings between rival drug gangs has become “quite normal” in Rio do Janeiro as well as clashes with the police forces, turning the city into one of the most violent in Brazil.

However this was the first time the gangs managed to down a helicopter, killing three of its members, and the weekend long violence was transmitted live to the rest of the world just a few days after the city had been selected to host the 2016 Olympics.

The latest incidents caused panic among residents and have cast a shadow on the Rio do Janeiro’s police capacity to control crime, and overall if the city can in seven years time be ready to guarantee the lives of competitors and tourists attracted by the Olympics.

President Lula da Silva condemned the incidents and promised “to clean the city of all this dirt, which tarnish the image of Rio do Janeiro”, but admitting it will take time to solve “the violence which these drug-trafficking gangs generate”.

Rio governor Sergio Cabral said that president Lula da Silva had promise 60 million US dollars to better equip the local special forces including a new helicopter to replace the one downed.

“When we are faced with a conflict between gangs of this magnitude, many times the innocent are the victims. We are ready to deliver the governor all the resource he needs to take ahead this cleansing operation”, said Lula da Silva.