RIO DE JANEIRO – The lights went back on, the trash finally went out and a week of tension and violence came to a close in two of Brazil's most notorious slums on Thursday — but with police instead of drug gangs patrolling the narrow streets.
Police and troops charged into Vila Cruzeiro on Thursday and the Alemao complex on Sunday to drive out gangs who had long ruled the hillside slums. It was part of an effort to help make Rio safer for the 2016 Olympics and 2014 World Cup of soccer.
Utility workers finished restoring power on Thursday and garbage collectors removed about 150 tons of accumulated trash. The government sent two buses full of labor recruiters to offer possible jobs, or at least training courses.
Police controlled the dirt streets snaking up the hills, but most of the 600 criminals they had sought when they raided the slums remained at large. Many fled — some through a maze of storm drains. Police said they had arrested 124 suspects in the slums since Monday.
With the gang power broken, in those slums at least, even some relatives were turning suspects in to authorities.
Diego Raimundo da Silva dos Santos, known as Mr. M, walked out of Alemao by his mother's side on Saturday and she handed her son to awaiting officers.
Another trafficker, Carlos Augusto Trindade, was arrested within Alemao after his father, a plumber, dragged him by the arm to a police unit on Sunday.
"I have four sons, and the others are hardworking. With children, you tell them not to get involved in crime, but they don't always listen," said the suspect's father, Ivanildo Dias Trindade to the Correio Braziliense newspaper. "One day, they have to pay."
Elizeu Felicio de Souza, known as Zeu, was arrested without resistance at his home on Sunday, according to police. Zeu had escaped prison where he had been serving time for his role in the torture and murder of a journalist in 2002, and had been in hiding.
Highway police on the lookout for suspects fleeing Rio arrested six suspects between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Three were previously wanted by law enforcement, they said.
A poll by the Ibope institute release Thursday showed 88 percent of Rio's residents supported the recent police action. Seven percent were unsure and only three percent disapproved.
