Brazilian far-right president Zaich Bolsonaro has congratulated the “warriors” who carried out a police raid on a favela in northern Rio de Janeiro, the death toll of which rose to 25 dead yesterday Wednesday.
“Well done to the warriors who neutralized at least 20 marginalized drug traffickers after being attacked during an operation against the gang leaders,” the head of state said via Twitter.
The president stressed that he was outraged by the “reversal of values by the media”, which “absolve gangsters of all responsibility”.
“The ‘left’ is trying to hide from the people ‘the reality of drug trafficking in Brazil,'” Bolsonaro continued. “It demonizes the police and treats criminals as if they were victims, not inhumane, heavily armed criminals who despise the law, oppress, blackmail, threaten and kill anyone without the slightest concern.”
It also claimed that an “innocent” woman, Gabriel Ferreira da Cunha, a 41-year-old resident, had been killed when she was hit by a stray bullet inside her favela house.
Her burial took place yesterday, Wednesday, with a few relatives present, including her inconsolable mother, who fell on the coffin and shouted “my daughter!”, A journalist of the French Agency’s television service found.
The Brazilian gendarmerie, which often carries out such operations in the early hours of the morning in favelas in Rio targeting drug traffickers, said it came under fire as it tried to “arrest criminals hiding” at Villa Cruzeiro.
According to the health authorities, two people who were injured during the operation succumbed on Tuesday night to Wednesday at Zetouliou Vargas hospital. Another, a minor, died at a municipal clinic. Four patients continued to be treated yesterday, one in a very serious condition.
Supreme Court Justice Edson Fakin said yesterday that he was “very concerned about the new police operation that has led to such a high death toll.”
In February, the Supreme Court ordered the state of Rio to submit a plan within three months to reduce deaths due to police action. The plan was presented in late March, but was described as too vague by human rights groups.
Tuesday’s operation at Villa Cruzeiro, described as a “massacre” by the same organizations, lasted 12 hours, forced schools and other public services to close their doors and had the second heaviest casualty in state history.
More than a year has passed since the raid that claimed the lives of 28 people, including a police officer, in the Zakarezinou favela.
Many police officers have been charged with summary executions, but only four of them have been prosecuted and 10 of the 13 files have since been filed.
The federal prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday night that it had launched an investigation into “possible human rights violations” by police at Villa Cruzeiro.
“The situation is very serious. The authorities must act immediately to stop these police operations and to prevent other people from becoming victims of this barbarism,” said a joint statement signed by some 20 non-governmental organizations. including Amnesty International.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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