Elite police squad courts controversy in Brazil

For many in Brazil the highly trained BOPE unit is a source of pride, with a reputation for being efficient, incorruptible and the only force able to strike fear into the drug gangs that control Rio's violent slums, or favelas. Its profile was raised further by last year's hit movie "The Elite Squad," which many saw as portraying it as a violent but necessary force.

For rights activists and residents of the slums targeted by its operations, though, BOPE is a powerful symbol of the failure of policing in the city of 6 million, whose murder rate remains among the world's highest.

Despite President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's nurturing of a strong economy and social programs lifting millions out of poverty, crime remains a stubborn problem on which he has made little impact -- and, critics say, little effort.

Thousands of slums, or favelas, that run through Brazil's major cities breed crime and violence, with little or no state presence. Only Sao Paulo, the business capital, has significantly cut its murder rates, partly by cracking down on guns and spending more on law enforcement.

In Rio, where about one million people live in favelas, Gov. Sergio Cabral has opted for a policy of "confrontation" with drug gangs. That was partly responsible for a 25 percent rise in the number of suspects killed by police last year to 1,330.

The results appear depressingly familiar -- drug gangs are often back in control of slums a few weeks after police raids -- but polls consistently show support for the hardline tactics.