A large-scale deployment by the Police in various Rio de Janeiro favelas (slums) has left at least seven people dead after gunfights between law enforcement officers and suspected criminals, it was reported. Two servicemen were wounded.
Hundreds of demonstrators converged on the square in front of the Rio de Janeiro state government palace Sunday, protesting crimes committed by the police against black people in the Brazilian city’s poor neighborhoods, known as favelas.
The baile funk dance parties have been called off. Some open-air drug markets are closed for business. Gangs and militias have imposed strict curfews. Coronavirus is coming, and Rio de Janeiro's lawless favelas are gearing up for the onslaught.
Brazilian authorities say they knew about structural risks in the area where a pair of buildings collapsed but were unable to act due to the threat posed by organized crime.
Residents of a hillside Rio de Janeiro favela risk finding hungry caimans at their front door after the city was hit hard by heavy flooding caused by torrential rain.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Monday expressed concerns about the state and outlook for rights in Brazil, singling out for particular worry some of the signature campaign issues of far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.
Thousands of Brazilian army troops raided Rio de Janeiro slums in a pre-dawn crackdown on crime gangs over the weekend, leaving parts of the city looking like a war zone on the first anniversary of the opening of the Olympic Games. Five favelas were targeted by around 1,300 police and 3,600 troops in a sweep starting at 4 a.m., the Rio state security service said in a statement.
Amnesty International said on Wednesday that residents of Olympic host Rio de Janeiro's slum favelas are living in terror after 11 people were killed in police shootings in the past month. The rights group said at least 307 people were killed by police in the city last year and called on Brazilian authorities to take action in the 100 days ahead of the start of the Rio Games on August 5.
Brazilian TV is showing footage of a woman being robbed while being interviewed on television about crime near Rio de Janeiro’s main train station. The images of the interview conducted Wednesday by TV Globo were posted on its G1 internet news portal and come just a few weeks before the beginning of the World Cup.
With only 68 days to the World Cup some 2,700 Brazilian troops seized control Saturday of the Mare favela, shantytowns complex, which is considered Rio de Janeiro's last major drug-gang stronghold and located in a strategic area for security reasons: a through area for the city's airport and the Maracaná stadium.