Complexo do Alemão

A favela of Complexo do Alemão.

Complexo do Alemão (Portuguese: [kõˈplɛksu dw ɐleˈmɐ̃w], German's Compound) is a group of favelas in northern Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

History

An article published by O Globo in 2007 revealed the origin of Complexo do Alemão. After World War I, a Pole named Leonard Kaczmarkiewicz bought the land. It was not long before the place became known as Morro do Alemão (German's Hill) due to Kaczmarkiewicz's physical looks (a person of stereotypical European fair complexion is informally called alemão, galego or russo in Brazilian Portuguese, while gringo only apply to non-Portuguese-speaking tourists; these terms can be offensive, jocose or intimate depending on context, but are generally unpolitely neutral).

The rural area began to change its appearance in the late 1920s, when the leather factory Curtume Carioca was founded. It attracted hundreds of workers to the region. When Avenida Brasil was inaugurated in 1946, the region started to progress and soon became the city's main industrial pole. However, the illegal occupation began in 1951, when Kaczmarkiewicz divided his land in plots and eventually sold them. The occupied places evolved into favelas during the military dictatorship. The number of occupations peaked towards the end of the dictatorship.

A Gondola lift built by the Leitner-Poma group now spans the Complexo do Alemão allowing residents a faster commute. It is popularly called Bondinho do Alemão, in reference to the more famous Sugarloaf Mountain's cable cars and Santa Teresa Tramway, both also called bondinho.

Demographics

• Area: 296.09 ha (2.96 km²) (2003)
• Population: 65,026 (2000)
• Homes: 18,245 (2000)

Social issues

Police killings

Main article: Complexo do Alemão massacre

On June 27, 2007, just a few days before the Live Earth concert in Copacabana and the opening ceremony of the XV Pan American Games, Complexo do Alemão was the stage of a huge operation led by the Military Police against the gangs formed by drug dealers. Official numbers state that the police killed almost twenty people in the region. State attacks against favelas happened countless other times. Until the end of the Pan-American Games, Complexo do Alemão was under siege. The operation was not without criticism, since some viewed its purpose as being to suppress the drug dealers of the Complexo do Alemão favelas only during the Pan-American Games since Brazil's international image could have been hurt if anything had happened during the Games. The United Nations Children's Fund also criticized the operation, which injured four minors.

2010 occupation

Main article: 2010 Rio de Janeiro Security Crisis

A Brazilian Navy tank on a street in the Complexo do Alemão, November 2010

Police entering the Complexo do Alemao during the 2010 Rio de Janeiro Security Crisis

On November 25, 2010, the Special Ops Battalion (BOPE) together with the Brazilian Navy, invaded the Vila Cruzeiro favela, in Rio de Janeiro. The majority of drug traffickers eventually fled to the neighboring Complexo do Alemão.

The operation, which was part of the 2010 Rio de Janeiro Security Crisis, was the State responding to drug traffickers setting buses and other vehicles on fire using combustible fuels. These attacks occurred in various neighborhoods throughout the city of Rio de Janeiro. The coordinated attack was in retaliation for the government setting up UPPs, Unidade de Policia pacificadora, Pacifying Police units within various favelas around Rio. This led to the expulsion of assorted armed drug traffickers, and tightened pressure upon criminal leaders in those favelas which continued outside the control of the State and its laws, such as the Complexo do Alemão.

Rio's Public Security Chief, José Mariano Beltrame, backed by Rio's Governor, sent an ultimatum to the criminals hidden in the Complexo do Alemão, either to surrender and put down their weapons, or face an invasion of the combined forces of the BOPE, the Brazilian Army, and the Brazilian Navy, which could escalate the violence and bring casualties. The criminals refused to surrender and radioed threats to the military. Two days later, 3000 men invaded the Complexo do Alemão with rifles, battle tanks, and armored cars. Despite the criminals' threats, the military force met with little resistance and took over the area within a few hours. After the invasion, an initial search was conducted, and tons of drugs (cocaine and marijuana) were found, as well as weapons, stolen cars, and motorcycles.

In 2012, the military forces left the Complexo and turned it over to civil police forces. Also in 2012, UPPs have began to be established in the Complexo, and government services have been extended the previous two years.

On July 23, 2012, the first police officer to die in a favela, while administered by a UPP, was shot and killed by criminals within the Nova Brasília area of the Complexo do Alemão. The female officer, 30 year-old Fabiana Aparecida de Souza, who had only been on the force for a few months was in a police headquarters building within the favela when the building was shot at by automatic rifle fire. The previous week, police were patrolling the area of Fazendihna within the Complexo when they were attacked two different times. In one of the incidents, a grenade was thrown which exploded near their patrol car. http://odia.ig.com.br/portal/rio/pol%C3%ADcia-divulga-imagens-de-suspeitos-de-participa%C3%A7%C3%A3o-em-ataque-que-matou-pm-1.467147

See also

• Metrocable (Medellín) and Metrocable (Caracas) similar cable-propelled transit system.