[imagesource:flickr]

All hell broke loose in Rio De Janeiro this week after members of a criminal gang set fire to at least 35 buses in retaliation for the police shooting of one of their key members.

Authorities were forced to deploy helicopters and other extra security after the nephew of a criminal leader of the largest militia group in the state was gunned down.

Although there were no injuries from the attack on public transport vehicles, which took place in a western part of Rio far from major tourist areas, it was a significant act of defiance against the government, leading the Rio state governor Cláudio Castro to put the city on “maximum alert”, with helicopters and drones reinforcing the police presence on the streets.

12 people were arrested following the attacks, but six were released due to ‘insufficient evidence’.

The nephew of a criminal leader, Matheus Silva Resende, is said to be part of a Militia that emerged in the 1990s. Ironically these militias were made up of former police officers, firefighters and military men who wanted to combat lawlessness in their neighborhoods. They initially only charged residents for protection, but the groups have recently ventured into the drug trade themselves.

According to a study conducted last year by the non-profit Fogo Cruzado and a security-focused research team at the Fluminense Federal University, the militias are thought to control around 10% of Rio’s metropolitan area.

These militias claim to be ‘different from the drug trafficking gangs that rule over significant Rio neighbourhoods’, but after the latest destruction, few people would be able to tell the difference.

[source:abc]