Brazil police press slum 'pacification'

AFP - Police moved into a series of favelas in Rio de Janeiro Sunday, continuing a drive to pacify the poor neighborhoods despite a police brutality scandal that has raised questions about the tactic.

Backed by Brazilian marines in armored vehicles, more than 1,000 police poured into a dozen slum neighborhoods in northern Rio just after dawn, meeting no resistance, AFP journalists on the scene said.

"It's one more step in the direction of peace," said Rio de Janeiro governor Sergio Cabral.

After sweeping through the area, police began going house to house to conduct searches and question suspects.

"That population has been clamoring for this for a long time," Rio security chief Jose Mariano Beltrame said.

The deployment of so-called Police Pacification Units aims to wrest control of poor hillside neighborhoods from drug gangs and bring down violent crime in the city that will play host to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.

http://www.france24.com/en/20131006-brazil-police-press-slum-pacification