At least eighteen people were killed Thursday, July 21 during a gigantic police operation against organized crime in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, the Complexo do Alemao. Among them, 16 are “suspected” to belong to criminal gangs, another is a resident of the favela and another member of the police, said a spokesman for the police at a press conference.
The Human Rights Defender’s Office and the Brazilian Bar Association’s human rights commission separately told AFP they had information of a total of 20 deaths, including the policeman and the woman. The death of the latter, a 50-year-old woman named Leticia Marinho de Sales, is under investigation. “We don’t know how it happened”said Colonel Rogério Lobasso, in charge of the military police for the operation, after expressing his regret.
A man posing as the 50-year-old’s boyfriend declared to the news site G1 that the police had shot at the car they were in. “There was a policeman at a red light, we stopped. But they still shot at the car. I just saw her fall on my side. When I looked at her, she had a hole in her chest”said Denilson Gloria.
President Jair Bolsonaro, for his part, regretted the death of the policeman, Bruno de Paula Costa, 38, without mentioning the other deceased. “He died after a clash with bandits”said the far-right head of state during his traditional show on social networksin which he also complained about the supposed legal difficulties encountered by the authorities in carrying out operations in the favelas.
“Military and guerrilla” tactics
Nearly 400 members of the security forces took part in this operation, equipped with several armored vehicles and four aircraft, in order to confront in this sprawling favela a gang specialized in the robbery of vehicles transporting goods and funds.
Residents complained to local media about the police operation, during which homes were reportedly invaded. The testimonies collected by G1 report intense firefights between authorities and criminals. Some videos posted by Internet users show a burst of fire against a police helicopter.
The authorities claimed that their units had been “violently attacked”with tactics “military and guerrilla”during the operation, and accused some suspected criminals of using civilians as human shields. “The police must react to protect themselves and protect the population”noted Fabricio Oliveira, coordinator of the Civil Police Special Unit (CORE), during the press conference.
He qualified as” iconic “ this operation because it took place in an area traditionally forbidden to law enforcement and where, according to him, criminals from other Brazilian states find refuge.
Heavy human tolls
Ronaldo Oliveira, undersecretary for civilian police operations, said he would have preferred officers “captured the 15 or 14 [présumés criminels abattus]but unfortunately they chose to shoot the policemen”. The authorities had previously explained that the operation was intended to curb the “expansionist policy” gangs from the Complexo do Alemao in “various points in the State of Rio de Janeiro”.
The Rio State Military Police claimed on Twitter that “criminals” of the Complexo do Alemao had set fire to barricades, poured oil on public roads and attacked police officers to make the operation more difficult in order to be able to flee.
This is the second police operation with a heavy human toll in a Carioca favela in recent months, after that which occurred in May in Vila Cruzeiro, which claimed the lives of 25 people, including 23 suspects.
Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the state of Rio in February to come up with a plan to avoid such heavy tolls, and the strategy was presented in March, but human rights organizations, which often denounce alleged extrajudicial executions during this type of operation, considered it too vague. In 2021, 1,356 people were killed by police forces in this state, the highest number of deaths and injuries in clashes in Brazil, according to the organization Monitor da Violência.