Brazil needs more security for World Cup and Olympics says UN report

 In a special report for the United Nations on Extra Judicial Executions, Philip Alston, says that Brazil must intensify a crackdown on violence as part of its preparations for the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 if it wants to ensure that there will be sufficient security for those events in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

“We welcome the news that community policing will be increased in certain slums of the city and that the federal government has promised to raise salaries in the police force. But more will have to be done to achieve the level of security we feel is necessary for the World Cup and the Olympic Games,” declared Alston, as he reported on continued alarming levels of deaths caused by police action and noncompliance with recommendations he made in a 2007 report.

Alston, a UN special rapporteur, recalled his 2007 visit when he witnessed Rio violence firsthand. “The day-to-day life of many Brazilians, especially those who live in slums, takes place in the shadow of assassinations and criminal violence. When I visited Brazil I saw how the police execute supposed criminals, and kill innocent bystanders during their operations. Civilians were also killed by extermination groups and ‘milícias,’ whose membership includes policemen.”

According to Alston, the number of executions in Brazil is very high. “There was a total of 11,000 deaths by the police registered as “resistance followed by death,” in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro between 2003 and 2009. The evidence shows clearly that in reality these deaths were executions. Only the police see ‘resistance.’ These deaths should be investigated as assassinations.”

As for the policy in Rio de Janeiro of sending heavily armed police forces (known as UPPs) into slum areas to clear out criminal elements and drug lords so the government can move in and bring basic services to the population, Alston praised the effort, but said a lot of work was necessary to make the new security real and sustainable. He also mentioned reports that UPPs sometimes abused local inhabitants and that promised services did not always appear.