Status: 07/22/2022 03:01 a.m
Just this year, Brazil’s top court set rules for police raids in Rio’s favelas to reduce deaths. But now it came to an operation with many dead. A resident calls the operation a “massacre”.
At least 18 people were killed in a police operation in one of the largest slums in the Brazilian metropolis of Rio de Janeiro. The police said 16 of them were suspected criminals. One of the other two victims was a police officer, and the Brazilian news portal “G1” also reported that a resident of the Complexo do Alemão in northern Rio was killed.
The aim of the action in the largest concentration of Fevelas with around 70,000 residents was therefore a gang that is said to have committed vehicle and cargo theft and robbed banks. He “would have preferred that they hadn’t reacted, but unfortunately they preferred to attack the police,” police spokesman Ronaldo Oliveira said at a press conference.
400 police officers and four helicopters
The operation began early Thursday morning, and around 400 police officers – supported by four helicopters and ten armored vehicles – were involved. Videos circulated on social media showing gunfire between suspected criminals and officers.
According to media reports, heavily armed members of police special forces and criminals engaged in fierce firefights. Authorities said police officers were “violently” attacked using “military and guerrilla” tactics. The criminals also used local residents as shields. There were also serious allegations against the police.
Resident speaks of “massacre”
“What the police call an operation is a massacre,” a favela resident told the AP news agency. She and others were prevented from assisting the injured. She saw a man who tried to help and was arrested. The woman did not want to give her name for fear of reprisals.
Rio’s governor Cláudio Castro defended the raid on Twitter. “I will continue to fight crime with all my might. We will not back down in the mission of ensuring peace and security for the people of our state,” he wrote.
“Security policy failed”
Other politicians and activists, however, criticized the strategy in the fight against organized and violent crime. “Enough of this genocidal policy, Governor,” said Talíria Petrone, a federal woman representing the state of Rio de Janeiro. The security policy had failed and ensured that residents and police officers were killed en masse.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro initially only lamented the death of the police officer killed in the operation and did not comment on the other dead. “He died in a confrontation with bandits,” said the right-wing politician, who is taking a hard line in the fight against crime.
Guidelines for Police Operations
Earlier this year, Brazil’s Supreme Court set guidelines for police operations in favelas aimed at reducing deaths and human rights abuses. For example, the use of lethal force of arms is only permitted as a last resort.
The reason was a raid in the Jacarezinho favela in 2021, in which 28 people died. And as recently as May, around 25 people were killed in a police operation in the Vila Cruzeiro favela. Human rights activists repeatedly level serious allegations against the police and even speak of extrajudicial executions of suspects.
Powerful gangs struggle in the slums for control of drug trafficking and protection money deals. The violence repeatedly spills over to other parts of Rio and hits bystanders. In no other country in the world do so many people die in police operations as in Brazil.