A member of Rio de Janeiro’s military police special forces next to the body of a man killed in a police operation in a favela last February. Silvia Izquierdo (AP)
Never in the last three decades has the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) recorded a year with fewer homicides than 2022, but this positive reality exists alongside another, much darker and more serious reality, the epicenter of which is the capital and its metropolitan area: the police commit a very high percentage of these deaths. It is a phenomenon that comes from afar and is increasing. One in three violent deaths committed in the city of Rio and its periphery in the last four years was the work of agents of the security forces, according to a study by the Federal University of Fluminense, published this Friday to mark the second anniversary of the police massacre that deadliest in state history. On that day, 27 men, mostly young black people, and one policeman died in the Jacarezinho favela.
Brazil’s police force has long been among the most violent in the world, but in a continental-sized country like this, average dwarfs other realities. And when it comes to police violence, Rio has always been at the forefront. Worse.
Rio de Janeiro and Guanabara Bay form one of the most spectacular cityscapes in the world, but behind this facade of beaches, samba and bossa nova lies an extremely violent reality. In the last four years, including the period of loose confinement during the pandemic, 5,958 people have been murdered in the city of more than six million people; of these, more than two thousand (2,043) died in police operations. It accounts for more than a third, and it’s something that’s being repeated in neighboring cities. Police brutality in its crudest form, as reflected in the film Tropa de Élite, is nothing new. In 2013, the best year on record, uniformed officers, paid with public funds to protect citizens, committed 10% of violent deaths.
Rio authorities have been battling the Supreme Court for months not to force them to attach cameras to their police officers’ uniforms, a move that has been battling the mild trigger in other states like São Paulo and a notable drop in suspect deaths and agents.
The prevailing insecurity in many parts of Brazil means that the idea of bandido bomé bandido morto (the good criminal is the dead criminal) remains entrenched and the defense of human rights is seen as synonymous with impunity for criminals. A speech enthusiastically received by former President Jair Bolsonaro and one of the ingredients of the cocktail declaring his victory in 2018. And it’s also one of the reasons ingrained police violence isn’t part of the public eye except in the most serious cases, or when stray bullets from delinquents or agents reach children. One hundred minors died in Rio in five years because of this.
After analyzing the deadliest police operations in Rio over the past 15 years, researchers from the New Illegalities Study Group have come to a chilling conclusion: “In the past, most massacres were carried out by extermination groups, who were active or reserve police officers in most of them. Today, massacres are primarily used.” committed by duty police officers in operations supported by their hierarchical superiors.” They stress that an integral part of this significant shift is the impunity afforded to them by the justice system. It is rare for any of the police officers involved in these operations to be punished. Of the 28 deaths in Jacarezinho, 24 cases have been archived.
Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe to
Many neighborhoods of Brazil’s most touristic city and the communities surrounding it are the scene of the daily struggle for control of the territory and the thousands of illegal deals between drug trafficking gangs and paramilitary organizations of active or retired police officers and soldiers. In this violent environment, security forces are consolidating as part of the problem rather than the solution, the researchers confirm.
Another conclusion, confirming the seriousness of the problem, is that “police forces commit far more killings and cause far more deaths than all armed groups combined.” And these are some, with Comando Vermelho being the strongest. The neighborhoods dominated by this criminal group dedicated to selling drugs are the scene of the security forces’ bloodiest operations.
Researchers at the Federal University of Fluminense also warn of a new phenomenon that is contributing to the increase in lethality: the so-called mega massacres by the police, i.e. those that claim more than eight lives.
The Rio de Janeiro Police Killings report highlights that since 2020 there have been seven operations that ended in more than eight deaths, compared to just one in the previous decade. And it states that there have been several turning points during the period analysed: Deaths by uniformed officers began to increase when the authorities withdrew an incentive they gave to police units that engaged in less armed clashes, they increased when the State went bankrupt, surged again when the army was deployed to the favelas in 2018, and declined when the Supreme Court ordered policing restrictions in the midst of a pandemic.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS America newsletter and receive all important information about current events in the region.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits