“The scenery changes fast,” Rio’s state security secretary Victor dos Santos told AFP.
“So when someone enters a place like this very quickly, the criminal who is there, alert, waiting for an adversary, ends up shooting first and only checking later to see who it is.”
Uber said in a statement to AFP that its safety technology “may block trip requests from areas with public safety challenges at specific times and on certain days.”
A spokesman for Google — which owns two popular navigation apps — said the company would not comment on the reported problem of maps diverting users into dangerous areas.
‘There are rules’
Rio has at least four criminal factions vying for territorial power and 20 percent of the metropolitan region is under control of these groups, said Couto.
A longtime resident of Cidade Alta — where five people were shot and injured after accidentally entering the favela in 2024 — told AFP “there are rules” that locals know when driving in.
These include driving at most “20km (12 miles) per hour…. You have to have the windows open, with the headlights on and a hazard light flashing,” he said, asking not to be named for his safety.
