Police said at least 25 people were killed in a shootout between suspected drug traffickers and police in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
Those targeted in the raid in the poor’s Jacarenjiho neighborhood tried to flee from the roofs, as police arrived in armored vehicles and helicopters flew overhead, television images showed. The shelling forced the residents to take shelter in their homes.
The victims included a police officer and the remaining suspected members of a drug-trafficking gang who, including some of their leaders, dominated life in the slums.
It was the deadliest single police operation in 16 years for the state of Rio, which has been related to drug violence for many years.
Bloodbiz prompted criticism from human rights groups including Amnesty International, who vandalized police for the “scandalous and unfair” loss of life in neighborhoods populated by black and poor people.
Amnesty International Brazil Executive Director Jurema Werneck said that the number of people killed in this police operation is condemnable, as is the fact that the massacre once again took place in Favela. public services.
In 2005, a raid on the violent northern outskirts of Rio in Baxada Fluminense killed 29 people.
Police Chief Ronaldo Oliveira told Reuters, “This is one of the biggest deaths in a police operation in Rio, overtaking 19 at Complexo in 2007, leaving Alemao Slum.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro have a constitutional obligation to oversee the police and criminal investigation of police abuses. It called for a thorough and independent investigation into the deaths.
According to HRW, the Rio police killed 453 people during the first three months of the year and at least four police officers died in police action, despite the Supreme Court’s handling of operations in communities during the COVID-19 epidemic Prohibited, except in “Perfect Other Cases.” “
Police said that apart from drug smuggling, the gang loots cargo trucks and operates commuter trains to steal from passengers.
Police displayed an arsenal of weapons seized at a news conference: six assault rifles, 15 handguns, a machine gun, 14 grenades and artillery ammunition.
Leave a Reply