Violence in Rio

A gunbattle between cops and dealers claimed five lives in a Zona Norte favela. Among the dead, a 15-year-old. Police said they recovered a grenade, other weapons, and drugs, according to this Reuters dispatch in The New Zealand Herald. The report notes that human rights groups (and some favela residents) "accuse police of excessive violence and summary executions of unarmed suspects, who are later registered as criminals offering resistance." As one city official told me when I was in Rio, he'd rather work with the drug traffickers because they are more honest and honorable than the cops.