Favela is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term, which means slum or ghetto, was first used in the Slum of Providência in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had lived under the favela trees in Bahia and had nowhere to live following the Canudos War. Some of the first settlements were called bairros africanos. Over the years, many former enslaved Africans moved in. Even before the first favela came into being, poor citizens were pushed away from the city and forced to live in the far suburbs.
Jacarezinho is a Brazilian neighborhood and also a favela with more than 60,300 residents living in an area of 40 ha. The place is located in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro city, and it borders the neighborhoods of Jacaré, Méier, Engenho Novo and Triagem. It is the third largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, only behind Rocinha and Complexo do Alemão. The favela expanded along with the city's industrialization, and it became the biggest favela in Rio de Janeiro by the mid-20th century, with a population of 23,000 in 1960. The crucial element in its growth was the industrial boom in the nearby Méier district after World War II, according to historian Julio Cesar Pino, author of a book about the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Kátia Lund is a Brazilian film director and screenwriter. Her most notable work was as co-director of the film City of God.
Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE) or BOPE is the police tactical unit and gendarmerie of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State (PMERJ) in Brazil. Due to the nature of crime in favelas, BOPE units utilize equipment deemed more powerful than traditional civilian law enforcement, and have extensive experience in urban warfare as well as progression in confined and restricted environments.
Elite Squad is a 2007 Brazilian crime film based on the novel Elite da Tropa by Luiz Eduardo Soares, André Batista, and Rodrigo Pimentel. Directed by José Padilha, the film stars Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, and André Ramiro, and tells the story of Roberto Nascimento (Moura), a captain with the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais, or BOPE, who leads a police crackdown on a series of Rio de Janeiro favelas in-preparation for the Brazilian state visit of Pope John Paul II.
Tim Lopes was a Brazilian investigative journalist and producer for the Brazilian television network Rede Globo. In 2002, the media reported him missing while working undercover on a story in one of Rio's favelas. It was later learned that Lopes had been accosted by drug traffickers who controlled the area, was kidnapped, driven to the top of a neighboring favela in the trunk of a car, tied to a tree and subjected to a mock trial, tortured by having his hands, arms, and legs severed with a sword while still alive, and then had his body placed within tires, covered in gasoline and set on fire—a practice that traffickers have dubbed micro-ondas.
Complexo do Alemão is a group of favelas in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Complexo do Alemão massacre was the result of an ongoing conflict between drug dealers and the police in the borough of the same name in Rio de Janeiro, which consisted of a group of large favelas in the northern region of the city. The massacre happened on June 27, 2007, when a large Military and Civil Police operation killed 19 people and injured several others. The Order of Attorneys of Brazil issued a report claiming that at least eleven of the people killed had no relations with drug trafficking whatsoever. Until the end of the XV Pan-American Games a large siege was formed by the police in the region—to secure the safety of the international event, some people claim. While it eventually got attached the demotic sobriquet Gaza strip, a report published by the federal government revealed that there were executions at the operation.
The National Public Security Force was created in 2004 and is headquartered in Brasília, in the Federal District, as a joint cooperation of various Brazilian Public Safety forces, co-ordinated by the National Secretariat of Public Security, of the Ministry of Justice. It was created during the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as a concept developed by then Minister of Justice, Márcio Thomaz Bastos.
Crime in Brazil involves an elevated incidence of violent and non-violent crimes. Brazil's homicide rate was 27.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Brazil has the highest number of intentional homicides in the world, with 57,358 in 2018. In recent years, the homicide rate in Brazil has begun to decline. The homicide rate was 20.64 per 100,000 in 2020 with 43,879 killings, similar to 2019, but down from 30.67 per 100,000 in 2017.
The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State (PMERJ) like other military polices in Brazil is a reserve and ancillary force of the Brazilian Army, and part of the System of Public Security and Brazilian Social Protection. Its members are called "state military" personnel.
The Pacifying Police Unit, abbreviated UPP, is a law enforcement and social services program pioneered in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which aims to reclaim territories, most commonly favelas, controlled by gangs of drug dealers. The program was created and implemented by State Public Security Secretary José Mariano Beltrame, with the backing of Rio Governor Sérgio Cabral. The stated goal of Rio's government is to install 40 UPPs by 2014. By May 2013, 231 favelas had come under the UPP umbrella. The UPP program scored initial success expelling gangs, and won broad praise. But the expensive initiative expanded too far, too fast into dozens of favelas as state finances cratered, causing a devastating backslide that enabled gangs to recover some of their lost grip.
Teleférico do Alemão was a gondola lift service operating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The service opened on 7 July 2011 and closed in September 2016, following the withdrawal of state funding. The line operated between Bonsucesso Station and Complexo do Alemão, with a total of six stations along the route. The duration of a single ride from start to finish was 16 minutes.
José Mariano Benincá Beltrame is a Brazilian federal police commissioner and former Secretary of Security of Rio de Janeiro.
Elias Pereira da Silva, also known as Elias Maluco, was one of Rio de Janeiro's most powerful drug traffickers. Maluco, a member of the criminal faction Comando Vermelho, commanded drug trafficking in thirty slums in the vicinity of Complexo do Alemão and Penha, Brazil. He was accused of killing over sixty people.
On 6 May 2021, at least 29 people were killed in a shootout between police and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The raid occurred in Jacarezinho, Rio de Janeiro, a favela notable for its high crime rate. The raid occurred at approximately 11 a.m. local time, following reports that a local drug gang was recruiting children.
The Vila Cruzeiro shootout took place on 24 May 2022 in the favela of the same name in Rio de Janeiro, during a joint operation by the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE), the Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police that resulted in at least 26 people killed by gunshots or cutting objects. It was the second most lethal police operation in the city of Rio de Janeiro, second only to the Chacina do Jacarezinho, which occurred a year earlier.
The armed conflict for control of the favelas in Greater Rio de Janeiro is an ongoing conflict between Brazilian militias, organized criminal groups Comando Vermelho, Amigos dos Amigos, Terceiro Comando Puro and the Brazilian state.
On August 27, 2022, Bruno Vanzan Nunes was killed when the Federal Highway Police agent responded to a robbery, and was shot on Transolímpica Avenue. Police forces in Rio de Janeiro mobilized to look for the criminals, but PRF agents killed Lorenzo Dias Palhinhas, 14 years old, in Complexo do Chapadão.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 
Sérgio Cabral Filho 
