Rio de Janeiro drug gangs face ultimatum
Commander of military police orders traffickers to surrender or face consequences after week of violence
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The commander of Rio de Janeiro's military police yesterday issued a stark ultimatum to drug traffickers: surrender or face the consquences.
Speaking on Saturday morning, following days of fierce gunfights between police and gang members, Colonel Mário Sérgio Duarte said his troops were preparing to storm the Complexo do Alemão shanty town, the headquarters of Rio's Red Command drug faction. "It is better to surrender now and hand over your guns while there is still time," he said. "When we invade it will be more difficult.
"The traffickers have no chance of success in this war," he added. "The criminals have the chance to turn themselves in now... and to receive the treatment they are due under law."
Clashes between Red Command foot soldiers and the police began last Wednesday following a series of attacks across Rio, reputedly carried out by members of the drug faction.
A week of violence has so far claimed at least 51 lives, while a two-year-old girl and a Reuters photographer were shot on Friday. Paulo Whitaker, the photographer, was reportedly hit by a stray bullet and was expected to leave hospital yesterday. With a massive police invasion imminent, Duarte advised residents of the war-torn slum to lock themselves indoors.
Antonio Carlos Costa, director of the NGO Rio da Paz, pleaded with authorities to give traffickers a deadline to hand themselves in. "We do not want this to turn into Vietnam," he told the news website SRZD.
Meanwhile Rio's civil police launched a giant operation to arrest relatives and lawyers of Red Command members. "If we think that person has overstepped the line, they will be treated like a criminal," said the head of Rio's civil police, Allan Turnowski.
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