Summary The clampdown aimed to restore order to swaths of Rio ahead of the World Cup.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Four police officers were killed over the weekend in and around Rio de Janeiro, highlighting the Brazilian city s struggle to tame street violence ahead of the 2016 Olympics.
An officer from a special battalion for security at major events like the pope s recent visit, the 2014 Wold Cup and forthcoming Olympics, died after being shot seven times late Sunday, according to G1 Globo news site.
Approximately 24 hours earlier, a civil police inspector was killed in the northern Baixada Fluminense suburb.
Meanwhile, in the town of Niteroi, across Rio s famous bay, an officer was killed while returning from the carnival champions parade.
A fourth died in a shootout after a bakery robbery in the Nova Iguacu suburb.
Rio s authorities launched what they call a pacification program in the city s notoriously violent slums, or favelas, in 2008. The clampdown aimed to restore order to swaths of Rio ahead of the World Cup and what will be South America s first hosting of the Olympic Games next year.
The pacification police units are deployed across 253 favelas, home to 1.5 million people, with a mandate to wrest back control of the streets from narcotics gangs.
But bloodshed, including multiple favela shootings, continues. In January, stray bullets alone killed three people in Rio.
