Brazil: massacre in Rio's favelas

Translated by Annachiara Laino 

On 28 October, Rio de Janeiro was the scene of the so-called “Operation Containment”. What was supposed to be a large-scale operation by the police to capture high-ranking leaders of the Comando Vermelho turned into a massacre described as “the bloodiest in the state’s history”.

The BOPE (Special Police Operation Battalion) entered the favelas of Penha and Alemão with 2,500 civil and military police officers, two helicopters, 32 armoured vehicles and 12 demolition vehicles. These areas, located in the north of the city, are dominated by the Comando Vermelho cartel, which holds the record for drug trafficking in Brazil.

The death toll is around 132 people, including four officers. However, what is even more shocking are the multiple reports of extrajudicial executions by the civil and military police, some of which took place after the surrender.

In addition, dozens of mutilated bodies have attracted the attention of the international community. Among the victims were a 14-year-old and a 19-year-old, whose head was decapitated and displayed on a tree.

Accounts from local residents and videos posted on social media bear witness to what happened: bombs dropped from drones, 200 bullets fired per minute from helicopters, bodies dismembered with machetes, with signs of execution by firearm to the back of the head and hands tied, and above all, the prevention of assistance to the wounded.

Victor dos Santos, Rio’s public safety secretary, said the goal of the operation was to execute dozens of arrest warrants issued by prosecutors.

However, when BBC Brasil compared the list of deceased published by the police with the 68 suspects provided by prosecutors, it found that none of them matched.

The Comando Vermelho

The Red Command is the most powerful group in Rio. Though its management of all legal and illegal commercial activities (from drug dealing to gas cylinder distribution, from control of the bus network to the clandestine supply of electricity and cable TV), it controls the city’s favelas, an area of approximately nine million square metres.

The 2024 data reveal a difficult reality: in Brazil, 14% of the population lives in areas dominated by organised crime.

It is a mafia that recruits children as young as 12, has an arsenal of weapons and ammunition, dictates laws and is responsible for kidnappings, murders and thefts in the area. Their activities then spread to other regions of Brazil, up to the border with Paraguay, from where they import weapons and contraband, and to the borders with Peru and Colombia, from where cocaine arrives.

The sides

The police action was ordered by Claudio Castro, governor of Rio, who acted without the knowledge of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who said he was “stunned” and “surprised”. One of the country’s biggest problems is rooted in this network of silence and independent action: it is impossible to repress the mafia where there is a constant clash between political powers.

While Lula’s left wing strongly supports the intervention of social workers, NGOs and human rights organisations in an attempt to rescue young people from the clans, Castro’s right wing, a close ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has instead adopted the motto “bandido bom è bandido morto” (a good bandit is a dead bandit) and claims that bandits should be killed rather than arrested or tried, pursuing a policy of zero tolerance.

Following the raid, Castro issued public statements in which he not only called the operation “a success”, posting a photo showing the more than 100 rifles seized by the police, but also legitimised the illegal use of force, arguing that “only police officers were victims” and that the state can “exceed its powers in the war on crime”. It should be borne in mind that Castro’s government has been responsible for four of the five deadliest operations in the state’s history, including those in Jacarezinho in 2021 and Vila Cruzeiro in 2022.

The violence and racism with which the local police in Rio operate are nothing new, considering the more than 800 killings in 2023 and more than 700 in 2024, with a consistent profile of victims: black and poor people living in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

In response to this latest event, human rights groups (including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the National Movement for Human Rights (MNDH) and its affiliated organisations in Brazil) condemn the political authorities in Rio de Janeiro as responsible and highlight the violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, according to which lethal force may only be used when strictly necessary to protect life or prevent serious injury in the face of an imminent threat.

There have also been multiple warnings from the United Nations and the Inter - American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which have described the Brazilian state’s “war on drugs” as discriminatory. It is now necessary to set up and take action through a verification commission composed of international experts to oversee investigations and inquiries into human rights violations by the police.

“Silence and impunity are complicit in violence.Until the state takes responsibility and guarantees the right to truth, justice and reparation, this cycle of abuse will continue, disproportionately affecting black, mixed-race and marginalised communities in Brazil”, said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.

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