Bullet holes can be seen on many house fronts in the favela Complexo do Alemão in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 16 July 2016. The Complexo is a big favela in Rio de Janeiro consisting of 25 settlements. Photo: Peter Bauza/DPA/PA Images. All rights reserved.
On its Facebook page, Coletivo Papo Reto keeps a record of all the gunfights in Complexo do Alemão, a conglomeration of sixteen favelas in Rio de Janeiro’s north zone. When shots are reported, the calendar is marked with an X. By October 4, the most recent update, there had been shoot-outs on 202 of 277 days of the year, almost all between military police and Red Command, the drug faction that controls the area.
April was an especially bloody month. A police operation to install an observation tower in the Nova Brasilia favela met with violent resistance, and in five consecutive days of gun battles, four people were killed: seventeen-year old Gustavo Silva was shot dead on his way to work at a bakery, soldier Bruno de Souza bled to death in his own home after being hit by a stray bullet, and thirteen-year-old Paulo Henriques was killed on route to a friend’s house to play video games.
