Updated on
Summary A force of 2, 600 army, navy and federal police was ordered to quell unrest.
Troops locked down the Brazilian city of Salvador on Sunday as an elite unit prepared to besiege the legislature and arrest armed police officers whose strike action has sent homicides spiraling.A force of 2, 600 army, navy and federal police was ordered to quell unrest in the northeastern state of Bahia after leading police officers went on strike on Wednesday demanding higher pay, weeks before the annual Carnival.Homicides have skyrocketed since the strike. State officials said 81 murders were reported over the past five days, more than twice the number for the same period last year. Assaults and store lootings also increased.There are 40 men of an elite group that arrived to capture the strikers, a state government source said, as soldiers patrolled key intersections in the city and kept watch over its popular beaches.The head of the state legislature, Marcelo Nilo, urged the strikers to leave the building before midnight Sunday. The site cannot be used as a refuge for those fleeing justice, Nilo said.Scores of armed policemen demanding an amnesty have been occupying part of the building since the strike began, Bahia state government spokesman Robinson Almeida told AFP.The government knows that 99 percent of us are armed. If they try to evict us there will be a bloodbath, an unidentified police officer told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.One strike leader was arrested on Sunday on charges of incitement to violence, forming gangs and theft of public property, officials said. Arrest warrants were outstanding against 11 other leaders.Local residents were fearful.For the last two days I have not left my apartment, Italian businessman Marco Baghin told reporters. It made no sense to risk being attacked or robbed. Bahia Governor Jaques Wagner has declared the strike illegal and asked for federal help.Brazils top army commander, General Enzo Martins, told the Agencia Brasil that 900 more soldiers were being deployed to Bahia to help provide additional security.The strike and the spike in violence came just two weeks before millions of tourists were expected to arrive for Brazils premier tourist event, the Carnival.Bahia, Brazils fourth most populous state with a population of 13.6 million, is an important center for Carnival celebrations.This strike, in the way it is being carried out, is unacceptable, Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo said.Crime fears were having a dire economic affect.Pedro Galvao, president of the Association of Travel Agencies of Bahia, told Brazils O Globo newspaper that 10 percent of tourists had already canceled their air and hotel reservations for the Carnival.Some 10,000 police officers, or one third of the Bahia police force, were on strike, demanding a 50 percent pay raise,better work conditions, and no retaliation, the state Public Safety Department said. The average wage for a state officer is about $867 a month.Bahia police also went on strike in 2001 for one week demanding a pay raise.
