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Head of Rio’s Public Safety Department steps down

RIO DE JANEIRO – A man who played a key role in security for this year’s Olympic Games and Brazil’s 2014 World Cup is stepping down as head of the Rio de Janeiro state Public Safety Department.

The state government says in a terse statement issued Tuesday that Jose Mariano Beltrame asked to leave his post after the final round of mayoral elections on Oct. 30. It gives no details.

The resignation follows a shootout between police and suspected criminals in the Pavao-Pavaozinho slum that left three people dead.

Beltrame has headed the department for nearly 10 years and created the “police pacification” program aimed at pushing out the drug trafficking gangs that have ruled Rio’s slums for decades.

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