Visiting the Complexo do Alemao, a region comprising of several favelas in northern Rio, Lula said that he wishes to "contribute to change the image of Rio de Janeiro," so that it recovers its status of "Wonderful City," as it is nicknamed.
"I am fed up with seeing Rio on newspapers as if it symbolized violence," the president said, adding that, if the previous city mayors had done "their part" over the past decades, he would not need to be announcing the projects, most of them aimed at improving its social and housing conditions.
He also said police have a responsibility to improve life in Rio's 600 slums. Slum residents have always complained of uninformed police raids to curb drug gangs, when innocent people were often injured or even killed by stray bullets.
"The police before coming here have to know that men, women andchildren also live here," he said.
The Brazilian federal government decided to extend the focus of its social policy to poor areas in city centers and metropolitan regions, the so-called "favelas", after it implemented social development programs in the country's impoverished rural areas.
During his visit to the favelas on Friday, Lula also suggested that the inhabitants form a committee oversee the implementation of the projects.
The president's Chief of Staff Dilma Roussef also participated in the visit. Lula referred to her as "the mother of PAC," and said she was a "strong name" for the next presidential elections in 2010.
The PAC projects in Rio's favelas will actually start to be carried out on Monday, and will cost a total of 1.14 billion reais(678.5 million U.S. dollars), of which the federal government will cover 838 million reais (499 million U.S. dollars).
The program includes construction of 4,822 new households, six schools and three medical care centers.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/08/content_7744035.htm
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