Rio de Janeiro under high state of alert to guarantee carnival celebrations

On the heels of a day of rampant crime triggered by drug smugglers, law enforcement agencies in Rio de Janeiro have turned up the heat on the streets to guarantee safety and security in the population during the upcoming Carnival.

Renato Hottz, chief of Military Police in the state of Rio de Janeiro told news outlets Tuesday that all battalions under his command remain on a state of high alert and all troopers are on the beat.

”I think the situation (in the city) in under control. Anyway, all MP battalions are in a state of high alert and we’ve got 16,000 officers on the beat to make the population feel safe,” Chief Hottz said.

That number of police officers doubles the amount of MP troopers that usually patrol the city streets.

On Tuesday morning, MP officers were seen patrolling all access points to the city’s skid rows and slums, as well as the main avenues and bus depots in an effort to avoid a new wave of violence staged by drug dealers.

The huge police emergency operative went into force in the wee hours of Monday morning following a violence spree that hit the burg with riots. However, the top priority is to allow local residents and foreign tourists to enjoy the carnival in a peaceful atmosphere.

Rio de Janeiro governess Rosinha Matheus said Tuesday that “police forces remain on the lookout and the situation is absolutely under control.”

For Jose Eduardo Guinle, secretary of tourism in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the Monday events are “regrettable” in the face of a hefty publicity campaign aimed at raising the city’s image all over the world.

”I hope the carnival and the local population’s good sense of humor could rub out that bad impression among tourists,” Mr. Guinle commented.

The city’s hotel sector is bracing for the arrival of some 400,000 tourists (both local and foreign) for the Carnival, around 10 percent more than last year, which explains why authorities in Rio de Janeiro wants to secure social peace at any rate.

Despite the intense police deployment, a few isolated developments hit the city again before daybreak. In the north side, armed men stoned and set alight three buses earlier in the morning. Police officers never made it on time to stop the vandals.

Minutes after dawn on Tuesday, a group of unknown men machine-gunned a supermarket whose owners refused to obey drug smugglers’ orders of shutting down for the day. According to estimates released by the Trade Federation, last Monday incidents caused 50 million reals (some $14 million) worth of losses for the sector.

For his part, Col. Josias Quintal, secretary of Public Security in the state of Rio de Janeiro, stood by the idea of having MP officers helping in the war against violence. In Mr. Quintal’s opinion, the seizure of critical zones by MP troopers could ease police actions across the city..

”Law enforcement officers cannot be everywhere. The city of Rio de Janeiro embraces 650 skid rows and slums,” the Secretary pointed out.

The strong police presence in the streets of Rio de Janeiro would stretch out until the end of the carnival celebrations that are scheduled to get underway this coming weekend.

For Mr. Hottz, the wave of attacks perpetrated by drug traffickers last Monday was the result not only of police raids against dope smugglers but also to protest conditions in which ring leaders are doing time in jail.

On Monday, law enforcement officers detained 70 people, 31 of them under charges of drug smuggling conspiracy in the arson attack against 26 local buses. Charges for this particular crime are pressed without bail, Mr. Hottz said as he praised the government’s tough stance on this issue.