Brazil Orders In Military to Combat Crime in Rio : Latin America: Army will try to stem crippling violence and corruption. Government admits the move is risky.

Struggling to roll back a wave of crime and corruption that is crippling its economy and has citizens cowering in fear, the governor of Rio de Janeiro turned over control of state and local law enforcement agencies to the nation’s army Tuesday.

Under a two-month agreement between the state and federal governments, the army will coordinate all efforts to combat a collection of bandits and the estimated 1,800 drug traffickers who have spawned a wave of violence that has sent businesses and tourists scurrying from Brazil’s most recognized city.

More than 20 people a day are murdered in Rio de Janeiro, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world, twice that of Los Angeles.

President Itamar Franco, who will leave office Dec. 30, decreed the new arrangement Monday after a two-hour meeting with Rio de Janeiro Gov. Nilo Batista, who had originally opposed the plan. The decree went into effect Tuesday.

“I congratulate the president, who, with only two months until the end of his term, had the moral courage to address this problem,” Batista said.

By going along with Franco’s proposal, Batista avoided the president’s threat to declare a state of emergency in Rio de Janeiro and send in troops against the governor’s wishes.

The army took control of the city’s 12,000 police Tuesday morning and began mapping out plans to monitor access roads and the city’s ports and to initiate air surveillance to cut off weapons and drugs coming to the city. Its plans could also include occupying some of the city’s 400 slums, many of which are controlled by heavily armed drug traffickers.

All sides agree that the use of troops for such activity is risky because soldiers are not trained for civilian law enforcement.

Violence has sent Rio on a downward slide in the last 10 years. More than four people are kidnaped daily, and gun battles regularly make slum neighborhoods so dangerous that schools are forced to close.

Tourism revenue has dropped by $800 million annually since 1988. Of Brazil’s 35 largest banks, only one is still based in Rio. And hundreds of the nation’s largest private businesses have left the state in the last decade.

Justice Minister Alexandre Dupeyrat said he hopes that the military’s presence can begin to turn that around.

“This action will promote generalized disarmament,” he said. “It’s not justifiable that people arm themselves to preserve their houses, their offices or their own lives. This is the obligation of the state.”

The biggest show of force is not expected until the middle of this month, when the army will put up to 50,000 troops on the street to protect ballot boxes during a special election for state offices--except governor--called because of massive electoral fraud in last month’s national election. Election officials threw out the earlier results.

The president turned to the military because the nation appears to have lost faith in state and local politicians and police, who are often corrupt and abusive.

In a newspaper poll published Monday, 58% of city residents questioned said they believe that police and bandits are the same breed.

Army intelligence sources say they have compiled a list of state officials, judges, local tax officials and members of the state, civil and federal police forces connected to organized crime. The list is so extensive, one source said, that “if the names were published, it would destabilize the country.”

More than 30 police officers are now awaiting trial on charges of murder or conspiracy to commit murder, stemming from separate incidents in which officers, for hire or revenge, gunned down innocent residents, some as young as 8.

When police burst into the Rio de Janeiro home of an organized crime boss four months ago, they discovered a ledger that showed scores of police officers, judges and politicians--including Batista and Rio’s current mayor--were receiving payoffs.