Newsroom Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – This week, the Mangueira slum (“Complexo da Mangueira,” consisting of the slums of Morro do Telégrafo, Candelária, Vila Miséria and Bartolomeu Gusmão, along with Morro do Tuiuti, Marechal Jardim and Parque Mineiros), with a population of around 20,000, became the latest area to receive a Police Pacification Unit (“UPP”) in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region.

Mangueira, like other Rio hillside slums, was controlled by drug gangs. In June it was invaded by a heavily armed force. Since then, order has been established, the state now provides basic services and has communication channels with the population.

The heavily armed force has now left. The Mangueira UPP consists of 435 policemen permanently stationed in the slum. With the incorporation of the Mangueira slum under UPP control, city authorities have now secured the vicinity around the Maracanã soccer stadium where the 2014 World Soccer Cup final will be played. That is to say, the state has wrested control of all the slums around the country’s showcase soccer stadium.

Rio de Janeiro authorities say they intend to set up 40 UPPs by the year 2014. There are slightly more than 1,000 hillsides slums in Rio and a UPP normally encompasses a number of them..

According to colonel Rogerio Seabra, who coordinates the UPPs, the principles of citizenship have been rescued for the inhabitants.

“The policemen who are members of UPPs are carefully selected. They must have a sense of the local culture, know something about the music people in the slums like, for example. That is important. Dialogue is essential in these communities,” explained col. Seabra.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Complexo da Mangueira recebe 18ª Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora