11 soldiers held in Rio drug deaths
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Eleven Brazilian soldiers were arrested on suspicion of turning over three shantytown residents to a Rio de Janeiro drug gang that executed them and left their bodies in a garbage dump, police said.
The killings touched off anti-military protests Sunday and Monday in the Providencia shantytown, with residents burning city buses and throwing rocks at soldiers.
Although the majority of the population supports an increased army presence in Rio de Janeiro’s more than 600 poor, violent shantytowns, military leaders and politicians have warned that soldiers are not trained to do police work.
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