Brazil Regains Control Of Rio Favelas Before Olympics With Lightning Operation

Brazil Regains Control Of Rio Favelas Before Olympics

A lightning operation conducted without incident by Brazilian security forces early Sunday morning allowed authorities to regain control of two "favelas," or shantytowns, in a strategic part of Rio de Janeiro forming part of the roadway corridor for the 2016 Olympic Games.

The Complejo do Caju and Barreira do Vasco favela districts, which for decades had been controlled by drug traffickers, were taken over in half an hour by some 1,500 members of the security forces, mainly the Bope special operations battalion and the Shock Battalion of the Military Police, backed up by the local Civil Police and some 200 navy riflemen.

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