Rio in fear even as deadly gang attacks subside
Source: Reuters
By Pedro Fonseca and Andrei Khalip RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Rio de Janeiro residents skipped work and kept their children inside on Friday after gang attacks and shootouts with police killed 18 people the previous day and sporadic shooting continued into the night. Gangs set ten buses on fire on Thursday, burning seven people alive in one bus. Assailants pumped bullets into police posts, killing two officers and two bystanders, while police killed seven suspected attackers. Calm appeared to return on Friday, although overnight two shootouts with drug traffickers occurred next to police stations and one bus was burned in the city of Niteroi across the bay from Rio. Nobody was hurt. Hundreds of people were stranded at bus stops during the night as only a handful of city buses circulated after many were torched on Thursday. Police mounted checkpoints in potential problem spots around the shantytowns and sent hundreds of patrol cars to the streets in what the authorities called "Operation Hunter," a police spokeswoman said. Police occupied 10 slums on Thursday. Even local residents used to living in a city with one of the world's highest murder rates were shocked by the carnage. "Where I live everyone is very scared after what has happened," said Vanderlei Schwin, 37, who parks cars in the upscale Leblon district, but lives on the outskirts. "I've called my wife twice today to check if everything is fine. I told the kids to stay at home. No playing in the street before it gets calm. Who knows when that will be?" he said. Rosa Magalhaes, a 67-year-old pensioner in the beachside Flamengo neighborhood said her maid had not come to work. "I don't blame her. The roads are not safe, everyone is afraid to take a bus," she said. NEW YEARS EVE SPIRIT DAMPENED? The attacks came as Rio prepared for its massive New Year's Eve beach party, which draws huge crowds of tourists. More than 2 million people are expected to flock to Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, including 550,000 tourists. State authorities were divided about what had triggered the violence, with some blaming jailed drug kingpins trying to prevent changes in the penitentiary administration that will occur after a new state government takes office on Jan. 1. Others cited tensions between drug gangs and illegal vigilante groups set up by police officers in some slums. According to local media, criminals distributed a manifesto in some parts of Rio, saying the state government backed the illegal groups. The groups have been taking control of some shantytowns from drug traffickers and demanding protection fees from slum dwellers, crime experts say. They say the attacks could also be a warning to the governor-elect, Sergio Cabral. He has pledged to sharply reduce violence, to fight organized crime and investigate vigilantes. Officials said they will safeguard the New Year celebrations sending 14,234 officers to patrol streets -- a 20 percent increase from last year. Glenn Godfrey, a 48-year-old tourist from London, held a newspaper with pictures of burned buses in Rio, but said he felt quite safe walking the Copacabana beach as most cities in the world had their problems with crime. "I first came here 30 years ago and today it seems much better," he said. "Rio de Janeiro is wonderful, but people from Europe are afraid of coming here. My mother has already called and asked me to be careful," he said.
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