RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The details about the Jacarezinho massacre will remain in the dark. The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police decreed a 5-year period of secrecy on documents related to the most lethal police operation in the history of the state, denying news sites access to the material.
Conducted on May 6, a Thursday, the operation resulted in the death of at least 28 people. But the lack of transparency did not stop there. The corporation has extended secrecy to all documents relating to police operations during the pandemic, starting June 5, 2020.
On that day, Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin granted an injunction – later upheld by the other Justices – restricting police operations during the health crisis, ruling that they must be conducted only in exceptional cases and after a justification was submitted to the Rio Prosecutor’s Office.
The secrecy was discovered by UOL, which had requested the Civil Police, through the Access to Information Law (LAI) to grant access to two documents related to the Jacarezinho massacre: the statement sent by the police force to the Prosecutor’s Office justifying the operation’s exceptional nature, as required by the Supreme Court; and the final report describing all the actions that took place that day.
In response, the Civil Police classified the documents as “reserved” and with “access restricted” for 5 years. “The content of the requested documentation comprises classified data, pertaining to strategic plans and operations of Public Security,” justified the corporation, which also added: “The disclosure of this content may compromise and jeopardize other investigation and surveillance activities.”
The letter was signed by Detective Rodrigo de Oliveira, who is currently undersecretary for Planning and Operational Integration. He was the one who, soon after the operation in Jacarezinho, stated in a press conference that “judicial activism” – in a clear reference to the Supreme Court – hinders police activities in Rio de Janeiro.
“Preventing the police from fulfilling their role is not to be on the good side of society. Activism permeates a number of entities and ideological groups that oppose what the Civil Police thinks. And the police are on society’s side,” he said at the time.
However, secrecy is not restricted to the Jacarezinho operation. In response to another request, this time to the GloboNews channel, the Civil Police replied that confidentiality applies to all operations conducted since June 5, when the restrictions imposed by Fachin began to apply.
Since then, over 500 operations have been conducted by the State and Civil Police. Last Friday, Fachin said he was against secret police protocols. “There is no justification for the protocols of police action, which represent the true parameters of control of the legality of their actions, to be kept secret, hindering the external control of police activity and the very citizen control of police activity and of the members of the Prosecutor’s Office,” he wrote.
The justification offered by Oliveira is based on state Decree 46.475/2018. Signed by then-governor Luiz Fernando Pezão (MDB), the measure adjusts the Access to Information Law (LAI) for the state of Rio de Janeiro and determines which state documents should remain secret – for example, those that pose a risk to the lives and operations of state entities, and also compromise intelligence activities.
Organizations react
Human rights organizations reacted to the secrecy decreed by the Civil Police. In a statement, Human Rights Watch said that secrecy should be reviewed by an independent authority. According to the NGO, “without a detailed explanation” that justifies the decision, “the classification seems more like an attempt to withhold information of public interest.”
The organization points out that international law determines that, when there is suspicion of human rights violation, “the rule is for greater transparency in access to information, and secrecy should be the exception.”
It also recalls that there are reports from residents and strong evidence of extrajudicial killings during the Jacarezinho operation, in addition to abuses against detainees and destruction of evidence – bodies were removed from the site of the shootings before the scene could be investigated.
“There is a clear conflict of interest when the Civil Police, which is investigating if their own officers violated the law, now decides to decree secrecy of information about the operation,” says the NGO. “It is hard to believe that the motivation to decree secrecy is truly to protect an investigation whose conclusion they have already anticipated.”
Amnesty International’s executive director Jurema Werneck said in a statement that “it is crucial that all information related to the serious human rights violations that we observed in the operation of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro in the Jacarezinho community be guaranteed by transparency.” She also emphasized that “Brazilian society, the society of Rio de Janeiro and the community have the right to know what prompted these operations.”
And she concluded: “All the information about what happened needs to be exposed. We need to know so that these events don’t happen again. The Rio de Janeiro and Brazilian authorities need to provide a strong response so that this type of violation does not happen again.”
The Brazilian Press Association (ABI) also “vehemently” protested against the decision. “It is clear that the purpose of making the information confidential is to prevent an unbiased investigation,” the organization’s president, Paulo Jeronimo, said in a statement. The ABI also reports that it is “considering legal measures to overturn the secrecy established by the State Government.”
In an interview with Folha de S. Paulo, the president of the human rights commission of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB-RJ) stated that “keeping the entire investigation confidential is to conceal what in fact happened” and “even violates human rights treaties to which Brazil is a signatory.”
“The STF must position itself once again and make public everything that happened during the Jacarezinho operation, who authorized this operation and what are the real motives that led to the operation that victimized almost three dozen people.”
Source: El Pais