It's not one world. Brazil's vacation hotspot, Rio de Janeiro, has long been known as a hotbed of gang violence. I've known a few people who visited Rio to take in the sights and the local culture, and every one I can recall related to me that they were warned to only take in the sights and local culture of the designated tourist areas, as it wasn't safe elsewhere.
On Thursday, we learned that at the moment, Rio is less safe than normal, as there is now what appears to be open warfare between police and a notorious local gang.
AT least 64 people were killed and 81 arrested as 2,500 heavily armed police and soldiers stormed Rio de Janeiro’s favelas in the city’s largest-ever anti-gang operation.
Gun battles raged for hours on Tuesday across the Alemão and Penha complexes, the strongholds of the powerful Red Command (Comando Vermelho) gang.
The conflict has left “bodies strewn all over the streets,” according to a community leader quoted by O Globo.
Governor Cláudio Castro said the city was “at war,” calling it “the biggest operation in the history of Rio de Janeiro.”
Four police officers were among the dead, officials confirmed.
“This is no longer common crime, it’s narco-terrorism,” Castro said in a video on social media, hailing the seizure of dozens of rifles, drones and a “large quantity of drugs.”
Another media outlet with a presence in Rio, the Times of India, presented what they claim to be live coverage. Watch:
Note that in the opening portion of that video, you can make out what sounds like both handgun and rifle fire, and several large columns of smoke from what appear to be structural fires. This is very nearly a war zone. The gang involved, the "Red Command," has aThe raid, reportedly planned for over a year, aimed to crush the Red Command’s territorial expansion.
The gang, Brazil’s oldest criminal faction, emerged from Rio’s prisons during the military dictatorship and now runs major drug and extortion networks across South America.
Here's the thing: Next month, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP30) will start up in Belém, Brazil.
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Belém, we should note, is about 1,300 miles from Rio. There are other international airports in Brazil that the attendees could use. Are any of them still thinking of flying into Rio? Climate scolds they may be, and annoying they certainly are, but there may be a serious risk of this gang seeing them as high-value hostages. They could be held to ransom, or they could be used as bargaining tools to get the Brazilian police to back off. The gang has a long track record of this kind of thing; it's a danger that any UN conference attendees shouldn't rule out.
The usual retinue of Hollywood and political figures who are only showing up in Belém to burnish their climate-scold creds would be advised to stay away. There's nothing saying that the gang can't travel to Belém, as well.
It's not one world. Things we take for granted here in the United States, like streets free of open gang warfare, just don't apply in much of the rest of the world. But, as you know if you're abreast of current events, it's becoming less and less unlikely here by the day.
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