More than 3,000 police and soldiers backed by armored personnel carriers raced into Brazil's biggest slum before dawn Sunday 13.11.2011, quickly gaining control of a shantytown ruled for decades by a heavily armed drug gang.
The action in Rocinha is part of a campaign to drive the drug gangs out of the city's slums, where traffickers often ruled unchallenged. The city of Rio de Janeiro has more than 1,000 shantytowns where about one-third of its 6 million people live.
Authorities said it took just 90 minutes to seize control of Rocinha. Police simultaneously overran the neighboring Vidigal slum, also previously dominated by the Friends of Friends drug gang.
Both slums sit between two of Rio's richest neighborhoods, and Rocinha's ramshackle homes climb a mountainside covered in Atlantic rain fores.
The takeover of the Rocinha neighborhood was the most ambitious operation yet in an effort to increase security before Rio hosts the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics
The action in Rocinha is part of a campaign to drive the drug gangs out of the city's slums, where traffickers often ruled unchallenged. The city of Rio de Janeiro has more than 1,000 shantytowns where about one-third of its 6 million people live.
Authorities said it took just 90 minutes to seize control of Rocinha. Police simultaneously overran the neighboring Vidigal slum, also previously dominated by the Friends of Friends drug gang.
Both slums sit between two of Rio's richest neighborhoods, and Rocinha's ramshackle homes climb a mountainside covered in Atlantic rain fores.
The takeover of the Rocinha neighborhood was the most ambitious operation yet in an effort to increase security before Rio hosts the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics
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