RIO DE JANEIRO, May 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Thursday praised government-community work that helped secure Rio de Janeiro's poorer communities by forcing drug traffickers out.
"Part of what I have found, no matter where in the world I've been, is when government shows respect and recognizes the dignity of people, whether they live in a barrio or a slum or in a good neighborhood, things begin to change," Biden said as he visited a favela in Brazil called Santa Marta. "That's what I see here."
The favela, a poor community of about 7,000 residents, was the first region to be to be pacified in 2008 under the program.
Biden visited a Police Pacification Unit where he was briefed by Maj. Priscilla Azevedo, head of the program in Santa Marta. She was the recipient of the U.S. State Department's International Women of Courage award in 2012.
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After his closed-door meeting, he told reporters he and Azevedo "were comparing notes. I was saying one of the things we find worldwide is that what we call community policing. When the police get to know the residents, everything changes."
He said he was told before the changes were implemented, the police were viewed as enemies not friends.
"One of the things we find, whether it's here, or India or in the United States of America, is that it [police being viewed as friends] makes harder for crime elements to be able to succeed," Biden said.
He called the work "remarkable."
"There's not a country in the world including the United States that doesn't have some parts that need additional assistance," Biden said. "There are parts of my country that are somewhat blighted, in our inner cities. We're working very hard to try to figure out how to deal with that."
He said he was told Santa Marta was a community that had very few city services, sanitation and police protection until recently.
"They turned what was an incredibly blighted area of the city into an area where they had thousands of tourists come here, sponsored by the government," he said.
Biden's stop in Brazil wrapped up his six-day trip that included stops in Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago.
