In the shadow of the Olympics, drug war rages in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO – Fans were lining up to watch an American beach volleyball duo square off against Mexico on the alluring sands of Copacabana Beach. But across town, far from the Olympic excitement, the crackling of gun battles echoed through the colossal favelas that envelop Rio de Janeiro’s hillsides.

As soon as he heard the bullets whizzing by early Tuesday, Richard Conceição Dias, 9, knew what to do.

“I lied down on the floor, hugging my mom,” said Richard, who lives in a one-room home in the sprawling Complexo do Alemão group of favelas with his mother and his three sisters. “She told me, ‘Get away from the window, close your eyes, dream about something nice.’ ”

http://www.startribune.com/in-the-shadow-of-the-olympics-drug-war-rages-in-rio/389934671/