The favela drug lord and the Congolese Consul
Big news in Rio today – the boss of Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela, was detained last night. Going by the nickname of Nem, he had a price on his head and the story of his capture really belongs in a film.
Nem – presumably not smiling now…
As part of the ongoing favela pacification process, Rio’s Department of Security had recently made it known that they had plans to go into Rocinha in the near future. As a result, many ordinary citizens started leaving a few days ago. Rocinha is seen as a real stronghold of the traficantes, and although the pacification of other favelas has been judged largely successful, many people have doubted that it would go so well when it came to the big one.
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| Rio’s largest favela – there are buses routes, banks and drug stores (of both varieties). Population estimates vary between 60,000 and 400,000! |
Before the big push into the favela (which will be carried out by BOPE, Rio’s special forces), police setup checkpoints at the favela entrances. Yesterday afternoon, several police officers were arrested as they attempted to escort a group of 5 traffickers out of the favela. Due to poor pay and an ingrained culture of corruption, everyday police (Policia Militar, PMs) are widely known to be untrustworthy. In fact they are specifically excluded from the post-BOPE pacification/development work which is carried out by new, ‘unsullied’ officers.
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| This is BOPE’s official logo. Their motto is Faca na Caveira – Knife in the skull. I wonder who does their PR… |
And then, late last night, a car from the Consulate of Congo was stopped as it attempted to leave the favela. When the police asked to search the car, the driver said he was the Consul himself and claimed diplomatic immunity. The car was carrying one passenger, a lawyer, who said that they would only submit to a search from Federal Police and agreed to drive to a Federal Police station with the MPs following.
On the way to the station, the car stopped and the lawyer offered the policemen a bribe of 20,000 Reais. When this was refused they increased the offer to 30,000 and then a 1,000,000! To everyone’s credit, the bribes were not accepted and when the car was eventually searched, Nem was found hiding in the boot/trunk. It turned out that the driver was not the Consul, just an employee at the consulate.
So, all in all, great news! Of course this does not necessarily mean that everything is going to go smoothly when BOPE go in, but it does suggest that things are going to plan so far.
There are still big problems in Rio and maybe the most sinister of these is the rise of the Militias, but that is something to think about another day. Maybe my scant knowledge of this city makes me ridiculously, naively optimistic, but I wonder if, in 20 years time, young kids will ask their parents if the favelas were really once ruled by teenagers with drugs and machine guns.
Oh, thanks for stealing my material for my blog post today. First pictures, now intellectual property. What am I going to do?!
Just kidding! But yes, awesome news! Definitely a step in the right direction!!!
Abraços,
Alex
I'm a massive kleptomaniac Alex – keep it quiet! Ha ha – I reckon it's a big enough subject for the both of us. A friend here just mentioned that apparently he called mum from the prison cell to tell her to remember to take the kids to school! Surreal huh? :)
Now the long arduous road towards pacification begins. I sure hope things work out.
From the picture featured in post Rocinha seems to be located in prime real-estate, with so many opportunities to develop cool stuff. If pacification works out I think it would be a nice gesture to have the next presidential library, or Instituto Presidencial as they are called here, located in Rocinha. Still 4, or 8 years for this to happen ( the latter in case the current president is re-elected).
Both Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the squid (Lula) decided to build theirs in São Paulo. If pacification is successful why not be bold and try something new.
Btw the following blog is interesting.
http://lifeinrocinha.blogspot.com/
I found it via Rachel's and it seems that the blogger, who is a Rocinha resident, grew up in both Brazil and the US. Many favela myths placed under scrutiny in his writings. Very interesting indeed.
Yeah, nice idea with the library. And that's a really interesting blog.