ABSTRACT
On 28 November 2010, the image of military personnel raising a Brazilian fag above the Complexo do Alemão, one of Rio's biggest favelas (slums), circulated widely in the Brazilian and international media. This symbolic act showed state forces taking control of territory that had previously been under the rule of drug traffckers as part of the ‘pacifcation operations’ implemented in Rio de Janeiro. This was perceived as a response to a security crisis in the city that justifed immediate militarized action against what Federal President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Rio de Janeiro State Governor Sérgio Cabral had labelled acts of terrorism.
