Rio Police Raid Slums, Clean Up Drug Strongholds

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Let's go next to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where millions of poor people have clustered for generations in some of the world's more spectacular neighborhoods. You can call them slums, but locally they're known as favelas. People build their homes on steep hillsides in the city. The poor neighborhoods have wonderful views. They're rich in culture. And they're also largely outside the law and extremely dangerous. Now Rio is planning to clean them up before hosting the World Cup in soccer in 2014.

Last week, police raided some of Rio's more notorious neighborhoods. Annie Murphy reports.

Unidentified Woman: (Foreign language spoken)

ANNIE MURPHY: Today, traffic is full of police vehicles, guns hanging out the windows, while the radio describes the latest confrontation between police and drug traffickers in one of Rio's slums, or favelas. Yet some favelas near the city's wealthy Southern Zone are calm, like Chapeu Manguiera. That's thanks to a peaceful, round-the-clock police presence that's keeping out traffickers. And as security has improved in Chapeu Manguiera, so has the local economy -including the real estate market. Solange Ferreira owns a tidy cement house with a gorgeous view.

I'm at the top of Solange's house, which backs up into this very steep, green, lush hillside, and has an amazing panoramic view of all of Copacabana beach.

Now that her neighborhood is safe, Ferreira is watching housing prices climb.

Ms. SOLANGE FERREIRA: (Through translator) With the security forces, everything has gone up in value. Before, people offered $20,000 for my house. But that's a price for something way out in the suburbs. Then it went up to $28,000. It keeps going up.

MURPHY: Now, Ferreira is asking almost $50,000. Tourists are increasingly turning to the favelas, looking for a change from the impersonal high-rise hotels along the beach.

Phillip Pritting is an English teacher from the San Francisco Bay area, who has spent months at this hostel in Chapeu Manguiera called Safety Inn.

Mr. PHILLIP PRITTING (English Teacher): All the gringos that I know...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. PRITTING: ...they're like excited to come up here. Everybody really likes to feel a part of something, like there's some sort of community.

MURPHY: But he also admits that if staying in favelas becomes more popular with outsiders, it could eventually displace locals.

Michel Misse is a sociologist who specializes in urban violence. He says the character of the favelas may well change, but that right now, better quality of life for residents is what matters.

Mr. MICHEL MISSE (Sociologist): (Through translator) They suffered a lot with the drug trafficking. The gangs set rules to control movement, imposed a curfew. They had a silence law. Anyone who spoke out died. It left a huge amount of stress on these people. With pacification, these communities have taken on other qualities.

MURPHY: The armed drug traffickers who used to guard the entrance to the favela of Santa Marta are gone. Officers who work with the peacekeeping unit pass time on the job visiting with residents, or helping break up playground fights like this one.

(Soundbite of crowd chatter)

MURPHY: A few months ago, Leda Domingues felt safe enough to open a small clothing store and doubled her income.

Ms. LEDA DOMINGUES (Clothing Store Owner): (Through translator) After the peacekeeping forces entered, things got better for us. The area opened up to more customers. People off the main streets come up here now, foreigners, people from the neighborhoods, too.

MURPHY: But, a real sense of security takes time. Despite the police presence, many people are still wary and don't want to talk about Rio's ongoing problem with drug trafficking gangs.

(Soundbite of crowd chatter)

MURPHY: A dozen people sit in a bar drinking coffee and cold beer, watching the news. The TV shows armed gang members taking refuge from police in another favela, a network of stairs and alleys that looks a lot like this neighborhood. On the screen, terrified residents wave white T-shirts and dishtowels out the windows. One of the men in the bar shakes his head.

(Soundbite of crowd chatter)

MURPHY: When I ask his opinion of what's happening, he raises his hands wearily. Look, I can't tell you anything. Who knows when they - the drug traffickers - will come back, he says. Everyone around him nods in agreement.

For NPR News, I'm Annie Murphy, in Rio de Janeiro.

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