Social and security issues in the poor areas of Rio are getting magnified in advance of sporting events to be hosted by Brazil. Read on as to how the neighbourhoods face routines not unlike Haiti's capital.
Rio de Janeiro: Control of the Poor Seen as Crucial for the OlympicsRaúl Zibechi | January 18, 2010
Translated from: Rio de Janeiro: control de los pobres para el negocio Olímpico
Translated by: Isabella Weibrecht
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) americas.irc-online.org
A favela in Rio de Janeiro.
The prospect of the FIFA World Cup in 2014 followed by the Olympic Games in 2016 has reignited the debate about public security in a country where there is an undeclared war taking place in the favelas between the military police, paramilitary groups, and drug traffickers, but where the principal victims are the poor.
"The day to day reality that Rio police confront in the favelas is very similar to that which NATO troops face in Afghanistan," says Kaiser Konrad, director of Defesanet, a magazine specializing in military issues.1 He goes on to say that Rio is one of the most complex theaters of war in the world, in part due to its diverse geographical terrains such as jungle and mountain ranges. "The danger encountered by a Western soldier patrolling certain parts of Kabul is the same as that encountered by a soldier or policeman called into one of Rio's hot spots," he concludes.
In the favelas, the drug traffickers have dug out ditches and built barricades with large cement blocks or boulders in order to prevent the progress of the "caveirao," an armored vehicle the size of a bus which is used by the military police when they enter the favelas. The same tactics are reproduced in the poor areas in Haiti, where the Brazilian military is in charge of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). There, as in Rio, the military police have to use diggers to first clear the streets, a form of "combat engineering" to overcome a logistical problem pioneered in Brazil.
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6656A serious problem of insufficient services for the poor, having to deal with gangs and quasi-authority figures, leads to major stress for the Brazilian residents living in the hills. Where is the respect for others, especially from leaders who might also be seen attending places of worship? People in glass houses throwing stones can expect splinters or worse.