Tim Lopes - UPPs Established

UPPs Established

In June, 2012, ten years after Tim Lopes' death, the Complexo do Alemão began to be under the umbrella of eight new Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) at the predetermined conclusion of the military's presence. The UPPs cover the areas of the Complexo do Alemão (which comprises 13 favelas) and Penha. Just the Complexo itself is policed by 1,200 UPP officers (it was announced in July 2012 that the number would be increased to 1,800). One of the UPPs within the Complexo covers the area of the Pedra do Sapo, which is the hill and upper field to where an anonymous tip led detectives to discover a clandestine cemetery which contained some fragments of Lopes' bones and some of his personal effects.

In December 2010, a mass was held to commemorate Lopes in a church in the Complexo called the Igreja Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe. Lopes' eighty-seven-year-old mother, Maria do Carmo do Nascimento, was in attendance. The service was organized by Rio's municipal union for journalists, the Sindicato dos Jornalistas do Município do Rio de Janeiro.

In January 2011 during the inauguration ceremony marking his reelection, Rio de Janeiro State Governor Sergio Cabral mentioned Tim Lopes in his inaugural speech. Cabral stated that Tim Lopes' memory had been honored by Rio's government when the press room and a public high school were named after Lopes.

A Gondola lift/Cable car built by the Leitner-Poma group now spans the Complexo do Alemão allowing residents a faster commute. It is now possible for residents of remote hills within the Complexo to take a gondola across the stretches of favela and arrive at a point where they can catch a train going to other parts of Rio de Janeiro.