By DIARLEI RODRIGUES and DIANE JEANTET
July 21, 2022 GMT
https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-rio-de-janeiro-26dbb7833baf45d61d1e8c95fa30e045
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – A police operation Thursday targeting gang members in Rio de Janeiro’s largest complex of favelas, or low-income communities, left at least 18 people dead in one of the deadliest raids the city has seen recently and one that he has already brought. more criticism of police violence.
Rio authorities said 16 suspected criminals were killed in clashes with police at the Complexo do Alemao along with a police officer and a woman. A police spokesman said the attack targeted a criminal group that stole cars and robbed banks and invaded nearby neighborhoods.
Videos circulating on social media showed intense shootouts between criminals, as well as a police helicopter flying over the small brick houses. Police in Rio have used helicopters to fire on targets, including in densely populated residential areas, and the video showed shots being fired from the favela at the aircraft.
At the scene of the attack, Associated Press reporters saw residents carrying about 10 bodies as onlookers shouted, “We want peace!” Residents said those who tried to help the injured risked arrest.
“It’s a massacre inside, that the police are calling an operation,” one woman told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because she feared retaliation from the authorities. “They’re not letting us help (the victims),” he added, saying he saw a man arrested for trying to do so.
A Rio police spokesman said some of the criminals wore uniforms to disguise themselves as police officers.
“I would prefer that they (the suspects) had not reacted and then we could have arrested 15, 14 of them. But unfortunately they chose to shoot our policemen,” said Ronaldo Oliveira, a Rio police investigator.
Rio state governor Cláudio Castro said on Twitter that he regretted the police officer’s death.
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“I will continue to fight crime with all my strength. We will not back down in the mission to guarantee peace and security to the people of our state,” said Castro.
But many disagree with the government’s strategy to tackle violence and organized crime, an approach that often sees deadly police operations. A raid on Rio’s Vila Cruzeiro favela in May killed more than 20 people.
Thursday’s operation was aimed at tracking down and arresting criminal leaders, some from other states, police said in an initial statement.
“ENOUGH of this genocidal policy, Governor!” Talíria Petrone, federal deputy from Rio, said in response to the governor’s tweet. “This failed public safety policy leaves residents and police on the ground, en masse. It is no longer possible to keep accumulating black bodies and favela residents every day!
Alemao is a complex of 13 favelas north of Rio, home to around 70,000 people. Almost three-quarters of them are Afro-Brazilian, according to a July 2020 study published by the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis.
Earlier this year, Brazil’s Supreme Court set a series of conditions for police to conduct raids in Rio’s favelas as a means of reducing police killings and human rights violations. The court ordered that lethal force be used only in situations where all other means have been exhausted and when necessary to protect life.
The ruling came in response to a raid on the Jacarezinho favela in 2021 that left 28 people dead. As was the case Thursday, one officer died during that raid, which some speculated at the time was the cause of the abuses and summary executions that followed.
Thursday’s operation began before dawn and ended around 4pm local time, police said. Around 400 police officers took part, including Rio’s tactical police unit, supported by four helicopters and 10 bulletproof vehicles, according to the police statement.
In a video shared by Voz da Comunidade, a community news outlet focused on Rio’s favelas, residents can be seen calling for peace and waving white cloths from their windows and rooftops.
Fabrício Oliveira, one of the coordinators of the police raid, said authorities fear Friday could be another violent day at the Complexo do Alemao.
“Our experience has told us that after raids like these, the police are attacked in every way,” Oliveira said.
____ AP reporter Mauricio Savarese contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.