Drugs lords are losing control over Rio's slums

Seth Kugel writes in the GlobalPost about the new program set up by Rio's police to take over the control of favelas from the hands of drug traffic. There's also a good slideshow.

The police have taken aim at this tropical city’s most intractable problem: hundreds of highly visible slums controlled not by government authorities but by violent drug gangs.
The goal is to liberate the favelas one by one from their heavily-armed de facto rulers using fierce special operations battalions to sweep out the gangs and weapons and then turn over permanent control to pacification units staffed by rookie officers. For many of the favelas targeted, it would be the first consistent police presence since drug gangs took over in the 1980s.
That includes the adjacent Cantagalo and Pavao-Pavaozinho favelas, labyrinthine communities of alleys and narrow streets on the steeply inclined hills above the upscale beachfront neighborhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema. They received the city’s fifth Police Pacification Unit (UPP) in December, in the form of 203 officers led by a personable, braces-wearing young captain named Leonardo Nogueira.
“They lived for many years under the domination of drug traffickers. Today, it’s another reality,” said Nogueira. The UPPs utilize first-year officers to avoid the corruption endemic in the more experienced echelons of the force. Nogueira, who has nine years of experience, said that wasn’t the only advantage. “When you use younger officers,” he said, “the result is always better. They are fresher. They are more rested. They are more disposed to work.”

Rio liberates favelas one by one


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