RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A violent police operation carried out this Thursday, May 6, against a group of criminals in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, left at least 25 dead after an intense shootout and at a time when the Supreme Court had restricted this type of action in Brazil’s favelas.
Official data indicate that one policeman lost his life minutes after being hit in the head and that 24 “suspects” died during the operation in the Jacarezinho favela.
Also injured were three uniformed officers and two civilians, who were hit by stray bullets as they were traveling in the city’s subway through the area at the time of the incursion.
Experts in public security assured that this is “the biggest massacre in the history of Rio de Janeiro”, since, in their opinion, it ended up becoming a “revenge operation” after the death of the uniformed officer.
The number of victims this Thursday surpasses the 21 victims registered in August 1993 in the Vigario Geral favela, so far the biggest massacre in this city and also provoked by policemen, who on that occasion acted while hooded, in an unauthorized action to avenge the death of four uniformed officers a few days before.
“The Civil Police, which is the one that should use intelligence and planning, was the author of this massacre by killing more than 20 people, in a disastrous action that was carried out to dismantle gangs of young people who robbed the trains, but that turned into an operation of revenge, an operation massacre,” said Silvia Ramos, coordinator of the Network of Public Security Observatories.
The intense armed confrontation began early in the morning in Jacarezinho, one of the most depressed and violent communities in Rio de Janeiro, when some 200 police officers were sent to the slum to repress a gang of drug traffickers.
According to the police, the drug gang controlling the area has been recruiting minors to carry out criminal activities.
The faction is being investigated for murders, robberies, and train hijackings, among other crimes, and for forcing permission to use the homes of favela residents for their crimes.
The authorities said that intelligence work allowed them to identify 21 members of the gang, “all of them responsible for ensuring territorial control of the region with the use of firearms”.
“It was possible to characterize the association of these people with the criminal organization that dominates the region, where a typical war structure was set up with hundreds of ‘soldiers’ equipped with rifles, pistols, grenades, bulletproof vests, camouflaged clothing, and all kinds of military accessories,” says the police report.
A preliminary balance indicates that 10 alleged drug traffickers were arrested during the operation in addition to the victims.
ABOUT FIVE PEOPLE DIE A DAY AT THE HANDS OF UNIFORMED OFFICERS
Thursday’s operation in Rio de Janeiro once again calls into question the actions of uniformed officers during this type of police raid.
Since June last year, most police operations have been banned in Rio de Janeiro by the Federal Supreme Court after a series of alleged abuses by agents that caused the death of at least 65 people in times of social confinement due to the pandemic.
According to the highest court’s decision, operations can only be carried out if they are previously planned and announced to the regional Public Prosecutor’s Office. The action in Jacarezinho was only notified to the Public Prosecutor at 9AM, 3 hours after it began.
Data from the NGO Observatory Network reveal that deaths in this type of police raids have increased by 26.6%, going from 75 in the first quarter of 2020 to 95 in the same period this year.
The figures are higher if one looks beyond the raids. A total of 149 people died at the hands of uniformed officers in January, 147 in February, and 157 in March, according to data from the Rio governor’s Public Security Institute (ISP).
“That is an average of 5 deaths by Police every day. This was the worst first quarter in the history of Rio de Janeiro since the ISP reports deaths,” the expert points out.
According to official data, in 2019, more than 1,800 people died at the hands of uniformed officers. Last year there were more than 1,300 victims.
The tragic toll of victims in the favela also puts racism on the table. According to the expert, most of the victims are young blacks who, because they have these characteristics, are labeled as “criminals”. “It is enough to be young, black, and a favela inhabitant to be a suspect”, said the expert.