The state public defense office says “there are indications of serious human rights violations” in a raid on the Complexo do Alemao.
At least 18 people have been killed in a Brazilian police raid on a favela complex in Rio de Janeiro, state military police said, in the latest deadly police operation in the city’s impoverished communities.
A law enforcement officer and a woman who lived in the area were among 18 people killed Thursday at the Complexo do Alemao, while 16 others are believed to be members of organized crime groups, a police spokesman said. police during a press conference.
“It’s a massacre inside, that the police are calling an operation,” one woman told the Associated Press news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity because she feared reprisals from the authorities.
“They don’t let us help [victims]” he added, saying he saw a man arrested for trying to do so.
A police officer participates in the operation at the Complexo do Alemao, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo]
Tactical teams from Rio de Janeiro’s civilian and military police raided the favela to wipe out a group suspected of being involved in cargo theft and bank robberies, which had invaded nearby neighborhoods, military police said in a previous statement
He said about 400 officers were involved, supported by four aircraft and 10 armored vehicles.
Thursday’s attack was the latest deadly police operation in a Rio de Janeiro favela, which has raised concerns from rights groups for years.
In May last year, more than two dozen people were killed in a raid on the city’s Jacarezinho favela, sparking outrage and protests among residents and spurring calls for accountability from human rights defenders and observers international
But Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has defended police tactics in his fight against organized crime, previously saying gangsters should “die like cockroaches”.
“I will continue to fight crime with all my strength. We will not retreat from the mission to guarantee peace and security to the people of our state,” Rio state governor Claudio Castro said on his official Twitter profile on Thursday.
Police officers take positions during the operation on July 21, 2022 [Ricardo Moraes/Reuters]
But the Public Defense of the State said in a statement that “there are indications of serious violations of human rights, and the possibility that this is one of the operations with the most deaths in Rio de Janeiro.”
Alemao is a complex of 13 favelas north of Rio that is home to around 70,000 people. Nearly three-quarters of residents are black or biracial, according to a July 2020 study published by the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis.
After the attack, locals could be seen herding injured people into the back of vehicles to be taken to hospital as police watched. Gilberto Santiago Lopes of the Anacrim Human Rights Commission said the police refused to help.
“We had to take them in a drinks truck and then flag down a local resident in his car to take them to the hospital,” he said. “[The police] They don’t intend to arrest them, they intend to kill them, so if they are injured, they think they don’t deserve help.”