At daybreak on Wednesday, Sgt Alexandre Martins will pull a yellow Brazil shirt on to his bullet-pocked body and set off from his suburban home for a date with destiny on Copacabana beach.
“It’s going to go down in history. It’ll be a unique moment – a watershed … It will astonish the world,” promised the 44-year-old police veteran who has spent half his life battling drug gangs in the city’s favelas and carries lead in his flesh as proof.
