Brazil's army sent to help quell shootouts in Rio favela (PICS)

Thanks to Mauricio for the links!

via Channel News Asia.

Hundreds of Brazilian soldiers came to the aid of Rio de Janeiro police Friday (Sep 22) after heavily armed drug traffickers rampaged through the country's most heavily populated favela, spraying bullets and terrifying locals.

Intense exchanges between police and criminals began early morning inside the Rocinha favela, where approximately 70,000 people live in a teeming cluster of small houses on hillsides overlooking wealthy western Rio.
Amateur footage broadcast on Globo television showed men with a variety of rifles and pistols firing volley after volley in a densely built-up area.

A bus was set ablaze near a major road tunnel underneath the favela, and the main highway was temporarily shut down by police, causing traffic snarls on one of the city's main east-west arteries.
Gunshots could be heard from inside Rocinha and black smoke rose from the upper section.

As the situation spun out of control, Defense Minister Raul Jungmann agreed to pleas from civilian authorities for help, ordering 950 troops onto the streets, as well as 10 armored personnel carriers.

The troops were assigned to securing perimeters, rather than going directly into the favela, where AFP journalists saw elite SWAT police in camouflage moving through the narrow streets.

"We will help to secure the region, control traffic and control airspace, with the goal of freeing up police units to do more specifically police work," General Mauro Sinott told journalists.

Nervous residents refused to give interviews, although several described themselves as "hostages" of the violence. One woman said she'd not seen anything as bad in 43 years living there.

Story here. 

Additional articles HERE, HERE and HERE.

If the USMC, SOCOM, and others really want to fight in cities then they need to hop on an airplane, forget all about the hookers (the women are stunningly beautiful in Brazil) and get sweaty, nasty and dirty with BOPE/Brazilian Army/Marine Corps.

They need to attend one of these sweeps and drink it in.

You want to know what a fight in a mega city will look like?  Check out their sweeps into the favelas.

The sad thing is that a fight in a mega city will look ten times worse and require thousands more troops.

I ask people to consider how mega cities are setup.

EVERYONE focuses on the scenic part of those cities.  EVERYONE looks at the tourists or "rich" areas.

They seem to forget that in every major city there are masses of people that live outside the "beautiful" sections.  Yeah.  You will roll thru the rich part of the city with no problem.  Your vehicles will fit nicely down wide streets and you'll have nicely manicured lawns to setup your sat dishes.

When you get to the rough side of town that all goes away.

The streets get narrow, people are living MUCH closer to each other, instead of cheerful waves from the well off your troops will be greeted with molotov cocktails, rocks and weapons fire.

And that's before you get to the bad guys.

What planners are forgetting is that in many places the criminal element is the govt and people depend on them for their livelihood because the system has failed them.  Add wartime scenarios to that list and you might be chasing their version of Robin Hood.

You want to have a real discussion about a fight in a megacity?  I'm game but let's be honest about it.