BRAZIL
More Cops, More Killings
Brazil’s crime-fighting strategy for the violence-plagued state of Rio de Janeiro may have backfired, statistics show.
Since it sent federal troops into the troubled state six months ago, official data shows that both murders and the number of people killed in police confrontations have increased, Reuters reported.
In February, President Michel Temer announced emergency measures that allowed the army to take over the police in the state, which is plagued by warring drug gangs and militias. Yet in the first six months of the army’s deployment, murders rose 5 percent to 3,479 killings. More worrying, the number of people killed in confrontations with police soared 35 percent to 738 people.
With the growing violence a hot-button issue in the ongoing presidential campaign, most voters in the troubled state still support the federal intervention, polls show. But that could well change before the vote in October.
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