Awareness about cocaine's ecocide in Colombia
Brazil vows to fight gangs, Rio death toll hits 21
Written by AP / Alñan Clendenning Monday, 19 October 2009 00:00
Brazil's president promised Monday to battle drug traffickers who triggered a weekend of bloody chaos that killed 21 people in Rio de Janeiro just two weeks after the city won the 2016 Olympic games.
"We'll do anything it takes and make all necessary sacrifices so we can clean up the mess that these people are imposing on Brazil," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters in Sao Paulo.
Rio police said the death toll from weekend clashes between rival gangs had risen from 14 to 21 because more bodies were found in the Morro dos Macacos ("Monkey Hill") slum, where the shooting also downed a police helicopter.
Two of the six officers in the chopper died Saturday after the helicopter made a fiery landing on a soccer field, and a third who was badly burned died on Monday.
Read more: Brazil vows to fight gangs, Rio death toll hits 21
Rio police on alert after deadly drug violence
Written by AFP Sunday, 18 October 2009 00:00
Brazilian authorities deployed an extra 4,500 police officers Sunday hours after deadly clashes between drug traffickers and police left 12 people dead in 2016 Olympics host city Rio.
Jose Mariano Beltrame, the state of Rio de Janeiro's security chief, told reporters reinforcements were sent in from outlying areas in an effort to calm tensions in the city's sprawling impoverished hillside favelas.
Rio's win to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the first ever to be held in South America, is a serious challenge for the city, hit by endemic urban violence.
Some 6,000 people were murdered here in 2008 alone.
12 killed in Rio clashes with police, drug gangs
Written by AFP Saturday, 17 October 2009 00:00
At least 12 people were killed and a helicopter was downed Saturday in fierce clashes between drug gangs and police in Rio de Janeiro, weeks after the city won its bid to host the 2016 Olympics.
Two policemen were killed and two others were wounded early Saturday when their helicopter was shot down by drug traffickers in a day of running battles in the slums of northern Rio, said military police commander Mario Sergio Duarte.
Nine buses were also set on fire in other neighborhoods close to "Morro dos Macacos" favela, in retaliation for a police operation aimed at controlling heavy gun battles between rival drug gangs in the area.
Drug traffickers in the neighboring "Morro do Sao Jao" favela had tried to invade Morro dos Macacos and seize control there, officials told reporters.
"58% of Colombia's illicit crops are located in FARC-influenced areas: 58,879 hectares of coca capable of producing 252 tons of cocaine per year, valued at more than 7.5 billion USD."
Cambio Magazine. September, 2009
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