Troops have started surrounding Rio de Janeiro’s largest slum to combat an escalation of violent clashes between police and drug gangs that has started affecting some of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods. Rocinha, which separates some of Rio’s wealthiest neighborhoods including Barra da Tijuca where the majority of the 2016 Olympics took place, has been beset by violence and shootouts for six consecutive days as police have tried to quell a war between two rival gangs battling for control of the drug trade. Television images showed civilians ducking for cover and police racing through the streets with automatic weapons. Major thoroughfares connecting some of Rio’s most exclusive neighborhoods were closed. Rocinha, Brazil’s largest slum and home to at least 70,000 people, overlooks some of Rio’s priciest beach-side real estate. The slum has been one of the several lower-income neighborhoods to be "pacified" in the past decade by the city’s police to control Rio’s problems with violence. The pacification program has suffered setbacks in recent years as public funding has wavered amid a prolonged recession.
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