Residents protest after a police operation against alleged drug traffickers
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police in Brazil faced outraged protests and a UN call for an investigation Friday after a raid on a Rio de Janeiro favela left 25 people dead — some reportedly killed in cold blood.
“Stop killing us!” said hundreds of protesters from the impoverished neighborhood of Jacarezinho, who marched outside police headquarters accusing officers of perpetrating a “massacre.”
It was one of several protests planned against Thursday’s police operation, which rights groups said was the deadliest ever in a city all too used to violence and police killings, particularly in the poor, majority-black favelas, or slums.
Police said the operation targeted a drug gang that was recruiting children and teenagers. It turned the northern neighborhood into a war zone Thursday morning, leaving streets strewn with corpses and pools of blood.
One of the deceased was a policeman shot in the head, whose funeral Friday afternoon was expected to draw emotional tributes from colleagues, as well as security hawks such as President Jair Bolsonaro and his inner circle.
The other 24 dead were “criminals,” according to police — who now face mounting calls to prove that, as well as questions on why they were killed rather than arrested.
United Nations rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva his office was “deeply disturbed” by the killings, and called for prosecutors to open an “independent, thorough and impartial investigation.”
“We remind the Brazilian authorities that the use of force should be applied only when strictly necessary,” he said.
“Lethal force should be used as a last resort.”
Residents described a heavy firefight, and aerial TV footage from the raid showed armed men on rooftops passing what looked like high-powered rifles from hand to hand.
Police said officers had followed all protocols before opening fire, and displayed large piles of drugs and guns seized in the operation.
Bolsonaro’s camp was quick to rally around the police.
“They were all bad guys,” said Vice President Hamilton Mourao, an army general, referring to the 24 killed.
Rio, an iconic beach city of 6.7 million people, is notorious for its violent crime, and also a troubled history of police killings.
Last year, 1,245 people were killed by police in Rio de Janeiro state — more, for example, than the 1,127 such cases across the entire United States. — NNN-AGENCIES