Gunshots in Rio; shantytown violence shuts schools

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Almost half (45%) of Rio de Janeiro residents say they frequently hear gunshots, according to a new poll, reports Folha de S. Paulo. Fewer than 1 in 5 (18% ) cariocas ‘never’’ hear gunfire, the study says.

Meantime, a human rights commission linked to Brazilian government is looking at how the intermittent drug wars in the Alemão shantytown violate residents’ right to education, Folha reports. (TV Globo reporter Tim Lopes was killed in 2002 while researching drug trafficking in the favela, notes this account from Reporters Without Borders.) Drug violence often results in schools being shut down. The commission report will be presented to the Organization of American States.

Last month, the OAS accepted a human rights case in the unsolved killing of a young man who was arrested in the juvenile institute of São Paulo (Febem) during an attempted mass breakout in 2003.

Posted by Marcelo Soares in São Paulo and Patrick J. McDonnell in Buenos Aires