Update on the situation in Rio

If you follow me on twitter, I've been re-tweeting a lot today, snippets from here and there, things I'd heard. For example, when they shut down Avenida Brasil this afternoon. Also a very popular tweet today is a warning not to go to Shopping Leblon on Saturday as a mass attack of armed favela residents is expected. I don't know how much truth there is to that but I can tell you there's nothing in that mall that I need that badly!!!! I'll be avoiding that area, thank you very much.... Since writing this there have already been more tweets talking about the mall being closed on Saturday. Like I said it's just heresay on twitter but sometimes where there's smoke there's fire...

Speaking of avoiding areas, I'm certainly glad Mr. DRL came home early today and avoided the Tunel Reboucas as an Antarctica truck was burned close by, causing a big cuffuffle .

If you search Leblon on twitter these days there's also a lot of gruff being said about Leblon residents and the governor's residence. As I've mentioned we live in very close proximity to his place. So any talk about that freaks me right out!

Stay safe everyone. It is my hope that this difficult time in Rio will not be in vain and that the city will be safer in the long run. I hope that no more innocent lives are lost.

Here is a photo of two of the front pages of papers in Rio de Janeiro today (OGlobo and Extra). Scary stuff.

Here is a regularly updated map of where in Rio de Janeiro cars have been firebombed/arrests have been made, etc. The current map:

 

Comments

[Amber G.]

I am curious if you would tell me more about the tweet about Shopping Leblon. My hubby and 2 kiddos and I (7 months pregnant) just moved here this past Saturday and are in a temp apt right across the street!

[Daily Rio Life]

Hi Amber - sorry if I've freaked you out. Just passing on the info! Here is the exact tweet, and it's all over twitter being retweeted:
NINGUEM ,VAI PARA O SHOPPING LEBLON NO SÁBADO, OS BANDIDOS DE TODAS AS FAVELAS,ESTÃO ARMANDO EM INVADIR O SHOPPING.

Which means No one go to Shopping Leblon on Saturday, armed bandits from all of the favelas are invading.

Really don't know if there is any truth to this but it is probably not worth risking going.

If you want info about getting in touch with some mom groups once you are settled, let me know! dailyriolife at gmail dot com

[Daily Rio Life]

fyi you don't have to be on twitter to read about what's trending on there, you can just go on and search!

[Andre]

I'm kind of sad people are SERIOUSLY believing the Shopping Leblon thing. This whole mess is more about creating fear than anything else. EVERY SINGLE TIME there's a security crisis in Rio, the most ridiculous rumors start floating like crazy and the sad part is: people actually believe them. Stop listening to all the bullshit on Twitter, that's not healthy. Check REAL news sources like G1 and go on with your routines. Gosh.

[Rachel]

I agree with you Andre, Twitter gets way out of hand in Rio. Major rumors spread. Of course, since you can't know what's true or not, you have to respect them. It's like a public forum of information from that telephone game. You never know who heard correctly.

[Rachel]

Check out: http://extra.globo.com/geral/casodepolicia/ or go to casodepolicia on twitter. They are saying what tweets are false or not.

[Daily Rio Life]

Thank you for the info about good sources of information - being not from here it is very difficult to gauge who is to be believed. It is too bad that Twitter is used for rumours as it can be an amazing tool for disseminating information rapidly.

When things like this happen I'm a bit lost as to where to turn for info, and how many precautions are truly necessary. The media is only so reliable, and the turnaround time isn't always great ("news" may not be all that new). As I've mentioned we aren't here with a company that offers additional security. We don't have local family with experience in these situations. I suspect we're not the only ones!