By David Gold
November 4 – A police force has been permanently posted to a favela near the Maracanã stadium (pictured) in Rio de Janeiro, which will host the final of the 2014 World Cup and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic Games.
The Mangueira slum, which has approximately 20,000 residents, has been allocated a Police Pacification Unit (UPP) to exert some control, with a fiesta of major sporting events coming to the city.
The Rio state’s public safety department confirmed 400 officers would be in the UPP and this means all of the slums surrounding the stadium, which is undergoing essential renovation work, will have a police presence.
It is the latest move in the police’s battle to beat armed drugs gangs and they will hope to remove such elements from Mangueira.
A heavily armed force invaded the Mangueira area in June and established order to restore communications with the residents of the area.
Mangueira is the 18th UPP of 40 that the city intends to organise by 2014.
“The policemen who are members of UPPs are carefully selected,” said Colonel Rogerio Seabra.
“They must have a sense of the local culture – for example, know something about the music people in the slums like.
“Dialogue is essential in these communities.”
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