RIO DE JANEIRO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Justice Minister Osmar Serraglio announced on Wednesday that the federal government will send troops into the state of Rio de Janeiro amid ongoing violence.
The problems in the state's capital city, Rio de Janeiro, were clear on Tuesday as drug gangs set fire on several vehicles and blocked one of the city's most important expressways. After the incident, state governor Luiz Fernando Pezao requested for federal troops to be deployed in order to tackle the rising unrest.
Tuesday's incident was only the latest chapter of the rising violence in Rio. The Cidade Alta slum, where the vehicles were set on fire, has been the site of a gang war for five months, as two rival gangs fight over control of the slum.
The police carried out a massive operation in the slum on Tuesday, arresting 45 people and seizing dozens of assault rifles. The order to set fire on buses and trucks came in retaliation to the police's efforts to deal with the gang war.
The incident increased the visibility of Rio's violence problems, which are often confined to slums and nearby poor areas. The blockade of a major thoroughfare caused massive traffic jams and prevented numerous people from reaching their jobs.
The resulting chaos forced the federal government to send out more troops, even though it explained that the decision was motivated only by the problems occurred on Tuesday.
