Drug cartels in Rios favelas

The world cup is coming and Brazil still suffers of violence in their streets. Just a few months before Rio de Janeiro welcomes visitors for the World Cup, and two years before it hosts the Olympics, security within the city remains a major issue. The favelas, which are the working class areas, are controlled by drug groups of the area. As a cause of this the governor set up permanent stations of police units in the different favelas of Rio in order to quickly respond to gang activity. As mentioned in the article crackdown in Brazil´s favelas “There are now approximately 34 Pacifying Police Units in Rio, controlling more than 100 favelas where hundreds of thousands reside.”

This is an important measure taken by the government not only for the control of drug activity in Rio, but also to offer a better security for the millions that will visit Brazil to enjoy the world cup. This is an important event for people of different nationalities all around the world. The police stations are prepared to act against any suspicious gang activity. This demonstrates that Brazil is prepared to give security to their visitors. However, many of the favelas in Brazil are still in the hands of criminals that are not willing to be pacified.

Photo taken from the article Crackdown in Brazils favelas

Worck cited:

Unknown. "In Pictures: Crackdown in Brazil's favelas." Aljazeera.com, 2014. Web. 1 Apr 2014. <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/04/pictures-crackdown-brazil-favelas-2014419441497812.html>.