Slum in Rio - Rocinha

 Rocinha is a slum in Rio that is extremely well-developed.  There are 150,000 - 300,000 people living there and almost all buildings have water, basic sanitation, electricity, etc. - even cable television.  Unforunately, Rocinha is also home to many drug dealers.  Should Brazil occupy and control this slum?  "The preparations to enter Rocinha, a hillside community of more than 80,000 people that has a thriving assortment of businesses and an emerging tourism trade, involved months of planning, officials said."

Today, officials entered Rocinha to assert control over the slum in preparation for the 2016 Olympics.  "The authorities said the occupation was an effort at the “pacification” of the sprawling slum, or favela, and it was carried out peacefully. " (NYTimes).  What will become of this slum?  Will it become a city or be incorporated into Rio as a place that is under the control and guidance of the government?  Will it be wiped out?  What will happen to the lives of so many people who live in this slum?  

“Some say it’s good; others say it’s not,” said Nilson Ferreira, 31, a doorman who lives in Vidigal, a slum near Rocinha that was also occupied on Sunday by soldiers and the police. “For me, it’s fine,” said Mr. Ferreira, who watched the police clean an area where drug traffickers had thrown oil to prevent vehicles from passing."

Many of the slums in Rio are dominated by drug dealers.  It would be interesting to see how the slums (or if) they could survive with the removal of these dealers.  

Here is the article that was on the front page of NYTimes.com today:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/world/americas/authorities-take-control-of-rios-largest-slum.html?_r=1&hp

Fun fact: at one point, Rocinha had a McDonalds.  Globalizaiton in the slums!