At least 18 killed in latest deadly police raid in Rio de Janeiro

Law enforcement officials take positions throughout an operation in opposition to drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 21, 2022.
REUTERS

At the least 18 folks died on Thursday throughout a significant police raid in a dense warren of Rio de Janeiro slums, state navy police mentioned, within the newest bloody confrontation in Brazil’s second-largest metropolis.

Tactical groups from Rio de Janeiro’s civil and navy police raided the Alemao complicated to take down an alleged legal group. The group was suspected of involvement in cargo theft and financial institution robberies and was planning incursions into rival slums, the navy police mentioned in an announcement.

At the least 18 folks died within the raid: one police officer, 16 alleged criminals and a feminine bystander, police mentioned. The operation concerned round 400 officers, 4 plane and 10 armored automobiles.

The lopsided demise toll ignited fears of rights abuses.

Residents transport a physique lined with a white sheet on a cart in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 21, 2022.

AP

“There are indicators of main human rights violations, and the potential of this being one of many operations with the very best variety of deaths in Rio de Janeiro,” the state public defender’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.

The navy police declined remark past their assertion.

Rio state police forces recurrently perform lethal raids within the metropolis’s sprawling slums. President Jair Bolsonaro helps heavy-handed ways by police of their struggle in opposition to organized crime, and has mentioned gangsters ought to “die like cockroaches.”

A police officer walks throughout an operation in opposition to drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 21, 2022.

REUTERS

After the raid, locals may very well be seen bundling injured folks into the again of automobiles to be taken to hospital as police watched. Gilberto Santiago Lopes, from the Anacrim Human Rights Fee, mentioned police refused to assist.

“We needed to carry them away in a beverage truck, after which flag a neighborhood resident of their automobile to take them to hospital,” he mentioned. “(The police) don’t intention to arrest them, they intention to kill them, so in the event that they’re injured, they suppose they don’t deserve assist.”

Residents stand subsequent to lifeless our bodies throughout a police operation in opposition to drug gangs in Alemao slums complicated on July 21, 2022.

REUTERS

Native residents had been livid and yelled on the police.

“We’re scared to stay right here,” one native screamed after the raid. “The place are we? Afghanistan? In a conflict? In Iraq? If they need a conflict, ship them to Iraq.”