Folks, This is just a heads up plus me needing to vent it out. Rio de Janeiro is in a state of un-assumed war for a week now. Criminal factions are trying to spread terror by burning car, buses and whatever they can on the street, sometimes without giving any warning to those inside. We're living with this crap for so long that we're not impressed anymore. As many here don't know we have really big slums, complexo do alemão slum is home to 400 thousand people alone and it is not the biggest one. Yesterday, the Rio de Janeiro Special Police Forces allied with Everyone-Carrying-A-Badge took Vila do Cruzeiro slum from the criminals and they are retaliating. There are tanks on the street here and criminals are trying to shoot down the police armored helicopter. Police is using clanfs (Amphibious Armored light tanks from our marines) to break down barricades on the slums.
Brazil is a strange place, we have many police forces. There is the Civil Police (Investigation), the Military Police (Pursuit criminals, maintain order), Federal Police, National Force, All the different special ops but no matter how many forces we have, in Rio there is one called BOPE (Batalhão de Operações Especiais, special ops battalion) which is the best police in the country but it is really not there to take criminals to justice but to wage war against organized crime, they dress in black and their symbol is the loved/hated skull with a knife and two pistols. Yesterday I saw them with their black armored tanks invading a slum while the foot troops shouted: "We're going to collect your souls!!!". And believe it or not, 350 BOPE troppers are all the barrier there is between the common city dweller and crime. Here in Rio a 14 years old robber will be carrying a AK-47, believe me, I've seen it and been robbed by it. What is happening now is a reaction from organized crime to the UPP (Peace/Pacifying Police Units) which are a mixture of barracks, police station, goverment presence that is being installed into each slum as we retake them from crime. Basically after BOPE + Civil Police retake a slum, they install this huge UPP where there is a permanent presence and occupation by officers and goverment officials thus making crime somewhat hard. As BOPE invaded Vila do Cruzeiro yesterday, at least 200 criminals carrying AK-47 and other nasties fled to the neighbour slum Complexo do Alemão. There are at least 40 deaths (official deaths which means the true number is probably 3 or 4 times that) and 50 vehicles burned and more. This situation is expected to last probably until next year and an things are expected to aggravate soon as the police advance. Never in this country, the common people sided with the police like we're seeing now, usually common poor people would host and hide criminals. Now they are all asking and tipping the cops, which is good, never seen that in here. Heck as I am writing this email a black police helicopter just passed by my window, it is circling a slum near my place, some of the heads behind the terror wave are supposed to live in there... Yesterday, on my city block alone there were 4 robberies and what we call "Arrastão" which is when a huge number of criminals will band together and run thru the streets robbing everyone on sight. Heck, when you see such thing, you just run. So, if you know anyone coming to Rio now or in the next month, tell them not to come. If they do, make sure they stay safe and by safe I mean make sure they know someone local to keep them out of the terror zones and make sure they understand that Rio is under what we can call siege. If anyone here wants to know what it is to live here because I think most on this list have no clue, please watch a movie called "Elite Troop" (Tropa de Elite) and "Elite Troop 2" (Tropa de Elite 2) which are the biggest box office ever here. They are fictional but they are as close to the truth as it is possible to go. They are about a real BOPE commander and his quest to find his replacement in Rio under siege. This happened, he is real and I just saw him on TV yesterday. The film is a drama/action movie and might help people here see a side of Rio that the goverment and tourism agents don't want to let you know. Hiding behind 30cm of concrete and driving fast Andre Alves Garzia PS: I grew up here so I think this is all somewhat normal but it should not be. -- http://www.andregarzia.com All We Do Is Code. _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
