Just a few months before Rio welcomes visitors for the soccer World Cup, and two years before it hosts the Olympics, the security within the city is still a major issue. So called “pacifications” were supposed to pave the way for development of long-neglected areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second-biggest city and a metropolitan area home to 11 million people, therefore creating The Pacifying Police Unit (Portuguese: Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora), a military police with the intent of reestablishing security and diminishing criminality. Most Favelas are still in the hands of an army of drug dealers and criminals who do not seem to be willing to step down or be “pacified”.
Just a few months before Rio welcomes visitors for the soccer World Cup, and two years before it hosts the Olympics, the security within the city is still a major issue.
So called “pacifications†were supposed to pave the way for development of long-neglected areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second-biggest city and a metropolitan area home to 11 million people, therefore creating The Pacifying Police Unit (Portuguese: Unidade de PolÃcia Pacificadora), a military police with the intent of reestablishing security and diminishing criminality.
The UPPs stand at the center of the security strategy of Rio governor Sérgio Cabral Filho. The police set up permanent stations in the favelas in order to be able to patrol the areas on a daily basis and be able to quickly respond to the criminal activity of gangs such as Comando Vermelho and Amigos dos Amigos. There are now approximately 34 UPPs in Rio controlling more than 100 favelas with hundreds of thousands of residents.
Most Favelas are still in the hands of an army of drug dealers and criminals who do not seem to be willing to step down or be “pacifiedâ€.