"CONFLICT IN BRAZIL -- Demonstrators clashed with riot police in Sao Paolo (sic) during an occupation of part of the University of Sao Paulo (sic) yesterday. Students protested the arrest of three schoolmates by military police for possession of marijuana last month; they oppose the police's patrol of the campus, according to local media (Boston Globe November 9 2011)."
"Brazilian police arrest alleged drug lord" November 11, 2011|By Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO - The most-wanted drug gang leader in this Olympic city was arrested yesterday, police said. The capture is a blow to the gang that controls one of Latin America’s biggest slums and the main drug distribution point in Rio.
Antonio Bonfim Lopes, known as “Nem,’’ tried to flee the Rocinha slum in the trunk of a car, which was stopped at a police checkpoint just outside the shantytown, said Victor Poubel, a federal police inspector. He said the occupants of the car tried to bribe police twice, but eventually opened the trunk. Lopes did not resist arrest.
Police said that Lopes is wanted on charges of drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, and money laundering and that his arrest is a blow to the Friends of Friends drug gang that controls Rocinha.
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"Police storm into Brazil’s largest slum, reclaiming control from drug gang" November 14, 2011|Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 3,000 police and soldiers backed by armored personnel carriers raced into Brazil’s biggest slum before dawn yesterday, quickly gaining control of a shantytown ruled for decades by a heavily armed drug gang.
It was the most ambitious operation yet in an effort to increase security before Rio hosts the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Officials are counting on those events to signal Brazil’s arrival as a global economic, political, and cultural power.
“We’re taking back this territory for the 100,000 citizens of Rocinha, people who have needed peace,’’ said Sergio Cabral, governor of Rio de Janeiro state.
The action in Rocinha is part of a campaign to drive the drug gangs out of the city’s slums, where the traffickers often rule unchallenged. The city of Rio de Janeiro has more than 1,000 shantytowns where about one-third of its 6 million people live.
Authorities said it took just 90 minutes to seize control of Rocinha. Police simultaneously overran the neighboring Vidigal slum, also previously dominated by the drug gang Friends of Friends.
Both slums sit between two of Rio’s richest neighborhoods, and Rocinha’s ramshackle shacks climb a mountainside covered in Atlantic rain forest. Police methodically cleared alleys and streets on their way up steep, winding roads.
Helicopters continued to pound the air above, crisscrossing the hill and flying low over the jungle surrounding the slum, as police hunted down suspects who may have fled into the forest. By midday, local outlets reported just one arrest, though that couldn’t be independently confirmed.
Residents peeked out their windows and stared as the massive armored carriers blasted up streets.
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"Two reprieves give immigrants cautious hope; Advocates see signs of prioritizing cases" by Maria Sacchetti Globe Staff / November 26, 2011
Last week the Obama administration launched a comprehensive training program for federal immigration agents so they can better use a tool called prosecutorial discretion to halt deportations of low-priority cases and focus on deporting criminals and other serious cases more quickly. Officials also launched a nationwide review of immigration court cases, including those on the docket in Boston’s immigration court in the next seven months.
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Awww, the hell with it. So you don't hear about the nice gay couple at the end of the piece.
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Also see: Hitching a ride on Brazil's coattails
