As Carnaval Opens, Violence Rocks Rio - Troops Deployed to Fight Gangs as Tourists Arrive

www.washingtonpost.com By Jon Jeter Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 28, 2003; Page A14

Police took positions this week during an operation in a Rio slum where gangs burned buses and tossed bombs at cars and buildings. (Wilton Junior -- AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 27 -- Flavia Carvalho recalls unlocking the door to her computer software store here Tuesday when she noticed how utterly alone she was on a commercial block that is usually bustling by 10 a.m. Everything was closed: the shoe boutique, the art gallery, the colossal supermarket on the corner.

Then, with a tap on the shoulder, a young man appeared, seemingly from nowhere, with a message all the more chilling for its casual delivery: Shut down your shop for the day, or else.

"I thought: Oh, no, not again," Carvalho said. "Another day without business. But what could I do? He told me that anyone who opened would be shot or burned."

As this colorful coastal city prepares for thousands of international visitors and the anything-goes, five-day binge known as Carnaval that begins Friday, the government is battling an eruption of random bombings, shootings and vandalism that has disrupted vast swaths of Rio.

At the center of the violence is the feared criminal gang, Red Command, and its leader, a convicted arms dealer and drug kingpin known as "Seaside Freddy." The Brazilian government said it moved the gang leader out of Rio de Janeiro for 30 days on suspicion he was behind the violence. Police officials in Rio told reporters they suspected the gang leader was orchestrating the crime spree via a cell phone from jail.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered the deployment of 3,000 army troops to the city today to supplement 30,000 state and local police officers who are often outgunned by the Red Command and its well-armed, gun-running, and drug-trafficking rivals.

The president took that step, said Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos, "because organized crime is seriously threatening public safety.

"In addition, we have transferred the gang leader, Luiz Fernando da Costa, also known as Fernandinho Beira-Mar [Seaside Freddy in Portuguese] to a maximum security prison" in Sao Paulo state, south of here. News reports said the prison is able to jam cell phone calls. Prison officials assigned round the clock security for da Costa and 20 other jailed gang members.

Some law-enforcement officials here say that da Costa ordered the attacks in retaliation for the kidnapping of a cousin. But others say that a recent police crackdown in the sprawling hillside shantytowns controlled by gang members was the reason for the violence.

Rio de Janeiro has experienced violence before, but marauding attacks have rarely spread so indiscriminately outside the borders of the shantytowns -- known as favelas -- and into chic neighborhoods like Ipanema where surfers, bohemian artists and well-to-do vacationers rub elbows and shop.

Nearly 30,000 businesses have been forced to shut down since Monday. More than a dozen people have been injured and more than 30 buses have been set afire. Gang members tossed homemade bombs at cars and buildings, and police have made more than 36 arrests. A police raid Wednesday on a suspected Red Command weapons cache resulted in the shooting deaths of two suspected gang members.

Nearly 400,000 tourists began pouring into Rio this week for Carnaval, mostly oblivious to the violence. The U.S. Embassy has not issued travel alerts for the area, and tourism officials and travel agents say that the mayhem has not resulted in notable cancellations.

"I had no idea," said Todd Fredrikkson, 33, a liquor wholesaler from Sweden who arrived for Carnaval this week. "I've been wanting to come to Carnaval my whole life, so nothing short of a lost limb is going to make me miss this."

But police officers, government officials and citizens of this sprawling city of opulent wealth and crushing poverty are acutely aware of the crime spree and fear that it will harden the city's reputation as home to guns, gangs, drugs and violence.

Government officials said that they were focusing their patrols on entry points to the city's 600 favelas during the Carnaval pageantry, which culminates with all-night parades, samba extravaganzas and balls on Ash Wednesday.

"The gangs have become a second force," said Pablo Neto, a street vendor who lives in a favela. "They attack when they feel someone -- even the police -- is threatening their authority."

In September, police say, da Costa and several other members of the Red Command seized control of a wing of the Bangu maximum security prison and tortured members from a rival gang before executing them and hanging a red flag from the prison watchtower to signal victory before surrendering.

At that time, gang members also used the threat of violence to force thousands of shop owners across Rio to close their doors. Police say that da Costa ordered the campaign to protest prison conditions.

Researcher Phyllis Huber contributed to this report.