One year after the bloodiest-ever police raid of a favela in Rio de Janeiro’s history, a forceful new operation by Brazilian officers on Tuesday has left 11 people dead including a bystander.
Military police said they came under gunfire as they planned to enter a slum called Vila Cruzeiro in the north of the city with the mission of locating and arresting “criminal leaders.”
In the ensuing gun battle, 10 alleged criminals died, as did a female resident of the favela who was hit by a stray bullet.
Police often carry out raids in Rio’s teeming slums to fight drug trafficking.
They said that this time they were looking for gang leaders hiding out in Vila Cruzeiro that were from other parts of Brazil.
This was the deadliest police raid in a year in Rio.
Last May, a police raid in a favela called Jacarezinho left 28 people dead including a police officer. It was the largest such toll in the city’s history.
Vila Cruzeiro, a favela crowded onto a hillside not far from Rio de Janeiro’s international airport, had already been the scene of violent confrontation in February, when police killed eight people.
Tuesday’s pre-dawn raid targetted the Comando Vermelho, or Red Command, one of Brazil’s most powerful crime gangs “responsible for more than 80 percent of the shootings in Rio,” a police spokesman told TV Globo.
Police said there were gun battles in high-ground areas of the favela itself and in wooded grounds which dot the hillside.
– No body cameras –
Officers seized seven assault rifles, five pistols, 10 motorcycles and six cars in Tuesday’s raid.
But the muscular operation was criticized for its use of overwhelming force.
“Another massacre. Schools closed, thousands of people terrorized,” tweeted left-wing city councilman Tarcisio Motta.
“The policy of extermination runs its course in Rio.”
During such military police operations, residents and activists often denounce authorities’ abuse including extrajudicial killings of suspects, illicit acts which mostly go unpunished.
Rio police officers were supposed to wear body cameras on their uniforms beginning this month, but use of the equipment has been postponed.
Security experts believe cameras can prevent abuse but will not solve all the problems, and their use should be accompanied by comprehensive police reform.
The experts advocate for abandoning the cycle of confrontation in the endless fight against drug trafficking, opting instead for more efforts to disrupt the crime gangs’ financial resources.
Brazilian police are among the world’s deadliest, responsible for more than 6,100 fatalities in 2021, or an average of 17 per day, according to the G1 violence monitor’s count in partnership with the University of Sao Paulo and the non-governmental Public Safety Forum.
