Bloody police operation in favela in Brazil with corpses lying in the streets, at least 25 dead

The bloodiest police raid on Rio de Janeiro history is yesterday, in which at least 25 people were killed

THE favela Zakarezino, in the northern part of Rio, was turned into a battlefield in the early hours of Thursday. Residents said they saw corpses lying in the streets in pools of blood and much more being loaded onto an armored police vehicle, a local community official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Police have confirmed the deaths of “24 suspects” and a police officer who was shot in the head at the start of the operation. It is the bloodiest police operation against drug traffickers in the history of the state of Rio de Janeiro, as pointed out by AMPE.

“Unfortunately, many conflicts broke out in the community. “This report is not something we are happy about,” a police official told a news conference. He stressed that the police followed all the protocols to open fire.

But Sylvia Ramos, co-ordinator of the non-governmental organization Public Security Observer Network, denounced “a malpractice operation, which, after the death of a police officer, turned into a revenge operation”.

“Who are the dead?” Young blacks. And for this reason the police are talking about 24 suspects. As long as you are black and live in a favela to be a suspect “ stressed.

“For a legitimate operation in Zakarezino, it breaks all records” in the number of victims, he added, comparing it to two massacres committed by off-duty police officers for revenge in other favelas in 1993, with 22 dead, and in 2005 with 31 dead.

According to police, the operation targeted drug traffickers who were accused of recruiting minors in Zakarezino, which is considered the base of the Comando Vermelho (Red Commando), one of the most important drug trafficking gangs in Rio.

“These criminals are involved in drug trafficking, product theft, pedestrian attacks, homicides and subway attacks,” police said in a statement.

They killed him inside her house

A resident of the favela described to AFP that she saw a young man being killed inside her house, where she had taken refuge after being injured.

“The boy arrived injured by a bullet,” he said. “The police saw the blood and broke into the house shouting: where is it? where is; “I just managed to get my kids back when they killed him in the other room,” he added.

At least two other people were injured while on the subway by crossfire, according to local media which broadcast images of the two victims receiving first aid at a station dock.

The police operation took place despite the decision of its Supreme Court Brazil forbidding police from raiding favelas during pandemic coronavirus, with the exception of extremely special circumstances.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on police to keep the area intact, without touching the bodies, until investigations are completed, saying there had been “serious gaps” in homicides involving police in Rio in the past.

The Igapare Institute, which specializes in security and development, said it was “unacceptable that the police (…) continue to rely on death as their main strategy, especially in the most vulnerable areas”. According to the same, Rio police “responsible for the deaths of 453 people from January to March this year.”

For its part, the police pointed out that the company was conducted after a survey, which were monitored by the communications suspects and thanks to 21 members of the gang “who had undertaken to ensure territorial sovereignty with the help of firearms”.

The gang had acquired a military-style structure, with hundreds of ‘soldiers’ equipped with rifles, pistols, grenades, bulletproof vests, camouflage uniforms and other military equipment, he said.