Crime-weary residents of Rio de Janeiro strongly support the bloody police operation that resulted in a record 121 deaths this week, according to a new poll, which found they want drastic action against the gun-toting cartels controlling the city’s favelas.
About 2,500 military police stormed two of Rio’s most dangerous neighbourhoods on Tuesday, seeking to arrest leaders of the Comando Vermelho, the city’s most powerful drug cartel. After a fierce battle, in which criminals dropped bombs from drones, images of dozens of bodies laid out in a street were flashed around the world.
The operation’s brutality shocked human rights advocates and Brazil’s leftwing government, but S?o Paulo-based pollsters AtlasIntel found that 62 per cent of Rio residents supported the police action. The figure rose to 88 per cent among those living in the city’s favelas.