Posted on 04/17/2007 7:09:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Shootouts involving drug gangs and police Tuesday left at least 20 alleged gang members dead and sent mourners in a cemetery fleeing from gunfire, officials said.
The deaths are the latest in an upsurge of killing that has made Rio de Janeiro one of Brazil's most violence-plagued cities with an annual homicide rate of around 50 per 100,000 residents. Most of the killings have occurred in the city's more than 600 shantytowns, controlled primarily by heavily armed drug gangs.
At least 14 alleged drug gang members were killed in an hours-long shootout in the Mineira shantytown near Rio De Janeiro's downtown district, said a police spokeswoman who declined to be identified according to department policy.
"We're not finished wrapping up the operation, the number could rise higher still," she said.
It wasn't immediately clear how many of the victims were killed by rival gangs and how many by police, she said.
In a second, apparently unrelated shootout, police killed six alleged drug gang members in a shantytown on Rio's west side.
"The situation is under control now. We did what we had to do," state police Col. Samuel Dionisio said in a televised interview. "It was a relatively happy action for the police because we managed to avoid something more serious."
Police arrested eight alleged drug gang members and recovered several weapons including a hand grenade, Dionisio said.
The shooting at Mineira began early Tuesday when rival gangs from the Mangueira and Alemao shantytowns tried to seize control of lucrative drug dealing spots, police said.
Police surrounded Mineira in an attempt to quell the fighting as the shootout spilled over into the Catumbi neighborhood and shut down a major tunnel connecting Rio's south and north sides. The shooting also spilled into a neighboring cemetery, where four burials had to be canceled, local media reported.
Brazilian police officers look for drug traffickers during an operation at the Catumbi cemetery, in the Minera slum, Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, April 17, 2007. Rio is one of the most violent cities in the world, with an annual homicide rate of about 50 per 100,000. (AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes)
20? A slow night.
Is that the real headline? Kills them dead, huh?
this is what we ‘ve turned ourselves into. A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY, by importing all these lower level class of human beings. BECAUSE WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
We have a nomination here for classic FR headines.
Have the eurofags weighed in on Brazil’s “gun culture”?
Of course, stating that such a disparity results from the CULTURE of those who settled the respective regions would get me the Imus treatment, but I don't have a radio show to lose.
My bad … thought they were talking about DC.
INCONCEIVABLE!!
Isn’t it nice we have such an open southern border — and God only knows what is coming across it and into our country and our cities.
“City of God.”
A few years back,on a day tour of Rio,our guide spoke at length at how dangerous the “favelas” (slums) of Rio are.She said that the police *and* the Army basically steer clear of them,day *and* night,unless there’s a major emergency.
Holy cow, is that more than a Million?!
Rio de Janiero is truly the country’s eyesore. The rest of the nation is very beautiful and peaceful. If one is travelling there, go to Recife, Belo Horizonte, or the capital Brasilia.
As opposed to killing them alive?
Kidding.
Yes. They blame the NRA for covertly meddling in Brazil’s recent referendum to ban the sale of guns altogether (the initiative failed 60% to 40%). It was because of “slick advertising” or some such.
You have to be 25 to buy a gun, and you are not allowed to carry it (concealed or otherwise) in public unless you are a police officer or government-licensed security guard. The big-government nanny-state gun-control bedwetters think that yet more gun control is the answer.
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