Rio de Janeiro massacre: police commandos kill 25 people in a slum community

A bloody operation by the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police left 25 persons dead in the slum community known as "Jacarezinho". According to the Institute of Public Security (ISP), 24 of the victims were considered "suspects" of being possible drug traffickers and the other victim was a police officer - André Leonardo de Mello Frias - who was shot in the head.

However, members of slums and civil society organizations reported that those murdered were regular resident, including children.

Jacarezinho is considered one of the headquarters of the Red Command (CV) in Rio de Janeiro. CV is Brazil's largest criminal organization, dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion, theft, kidnapping and murders, estimated to have 50,000 followers.

The Jacarezinho slum is one of the headquarters of the Red Command (CV) in Rio de Janeiro. CV is Brazil's largest criminal organization, dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion, theft, kidnapping and murders, estimated to have 50,000 followers.

Another group that also operates in this area is named the Third Pure Command, it is one of the criminal organizations founded in 2002 as a detachment from the Red Command, located in the southern, northern and central part of the state, in a sort of geopolitical division formed by the illegal groups.

"It's a usual thing. What happened is that it is came out of the slum," said a source consulted by LPO regarding recurrent police violence in the carioca slums. The last operations as large as this one was recorded in the Complexo do Alemao, in 2007, with 18 death reported.

Apart from the usual scenes of violence that can be seen in the different favelas of Rio, this operation ordered by the Ministry of Public Security of Eduardo Paes' government violates a decision of the Supreme Court judge, Edson Fachin, of June 2020.

Fachin's determination states that police operations cannot be carried out in the Rio de Janeiro slums during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic within the scope of The Non-Compliance with the Fundamental Precept (FPF) 635. Actions are only allowed in "absolutely exceptional" cases with the prior warning of the Civil Police to the Public Prosecutor's Office. None of that happened.

LPO spoke with security specialist Thiago Rodrigues, who explained that "the STF failed to clarify what precisely is an exceptional case. What was considered a legal operation today ordered by competent authorities, was not coordinated with the Military Police and was officially the first since Fachin's determination, which does not mean that it really was legal."

"The violence was seen outside the boundaries of the favelas, inside the subway station and there was a record of all that. This happened because the alleged drug traffickers escaped," he added.

In addition, Rodriguez revealed that "on May 21, the Supreme Court will vote on Fachin's ruling to which all the documentation of the operation will be added."

Security in Rio has been such a concern for decades that different state governments have decided to support militias made up of former police and military personnel to dispute the territory with the drug dealers. Over time, militiamen and drug traffickers were divided into the territory and applied executions and tax collections to ensure security in the territories as well as other extortion policies.

Security in Rio has been such a concern for decades that different state governments have decided to support militias made up of former police and military personnel to dispute the territory with the drug dealers. Over time, militiamen and drug traffickers were divided into the territory and applied executions and tax collections to ensure security in those territories as well as other extortion policies.

The riskiest move was taken by Michel Temer's government when he decided to intervene within the security ministry to give powers to former Army Chief Walter Souza Braga Netto, Bolsonaro's current Minister of Defense. This situation led to the murder of Councillor Marielle Franco, who was investigating the institutional violence of the intervention and was murdered a few months later.

Sociologist Daniel Hirata called the operation unacceptable and told G1 that "it is more serious than the massacres at Baixada Fluminense, in 2005 , or Vigário Geral, in 1993."

A public prosecutor's study released in 2019 showed that increased police violence does not reduce the occurrence of crimes or homicides in Rio. The study concludes that police lethality does not reduce homicides and robberies. Rio has the most violent police. Areas where there is a further reduction in the number of people killed does not show a greater number of deaths by police officers, and the sporadic police actions have failed to reduce the problem of public safety, while clashes increase the risk of killing innocent people and affecting public services.

There's no sign of a gunshot exchange. It's execution style. A child sitting in a chair died. This is execution, it's cruel, it's barbaric.

Members of the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), Joel Luiz Costa visited the community where the operation took place this afternoon and made a complaint on his Twitter account: "We walked through Jacarezinho, entered five or six houses, and saw the same dynamic: destroyed homes, shots, execution. There's no sign of a gunshot exchange. It's execution style. A child sitting in a chair died. This is execution, it's cruel, it's barbaric," he said.