Several of the favelas in the most emblematic city in Brazil are dominated by drug traffickers and in Rio de Janeiro armed clashes between rival groups and between criminals and police are common.
According to the latest official statistics, although measures of social detachment imposed to slow the progress of the covid-19 pandemic have slowed homicides in May, the shootings in disputes over control of drug sales in the city have not changed.
Homicides in Rio de Janeiro fell from 345 in May 2019 to 273 in the same month this year, representing a reduction of 21%, according to the latest bulletin from the Secretariat of Public Security.
According to the report, the number represents the lowest homicide rate registered in May since 1998, a reduction possible thanks to social isolation.
One of the measures of social detachment against the pandemic in Rio de Janeiro is precisely that which prohibits “June” parties, such as the one organized by the victims of the multiple homicide.
Brazil is the second country in the world most affected by the new coronavirus, with 57,070 deaths and more than 1.3 million cases.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 498,000 deaths and infected more than 10 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
After Europe succeeded China as the center of the pandemic in February, the American continent is now the one with the most confirmed cases and the most deaths.
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