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Family Many killed in a deadly gang attack rio De Janeiro police began burying the dead on Thursday, leaving residents upset by scenes of carnage and angry at law enforcement, whom they accused of excessive force, torture and extrajudicial killings.
In the Villa Cruzeiro favela, where bodies were lined up next to each other the day before, many people expressed their shock, sadness and anger as government ministers and lawmakers came to hear the community’s demands.
At least 132 people were killed during Tuesday’s operation, including four policemen, Rio de Janeiro’s public defenders office reported Thursday.
A day after the raids, which many described as feeling like war, low-income neighborhoods showed signs of a return to everyday activity, with some restaurants and shops once again awaiting customers.
“I came to work because I had to work, but my mental health has deteriorated,” said local Monique Santiliano, 40, who runs a nail salon opposite the favela rights group CUFA in Vila Cruzeiro, part of the vast Penha complex of urban communities.
“This was not an operation, these were murders. They did not come to arrest, they came to kill,” Santiliano said, his voice trembling.
Conservative Rio state government. Claudio Castro said on Tuesday that Rio was at war against “narco-terrorism”, a term that echoed the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking. Latin AmericaHe declared the operation successful.
Human Rights Minister Macky Evaristo told residents and journalists gathered in Penha that she did not accept that claim and that masterminds and financiers should be targeted in the fight against organized crime.
“It makes no sense to come into our communities and subject children, the elderly and disabled people to this kind of terror,” he said.
Tuesday’s raid, carried out by about 2,500 police and soldiers, targeted the notorious gang Red Command in the Complexo de Alemão and Complexo da Penha favelas. This led to firing and other retaliation from gang members, leading to chaos across the city on Tuesday.
The state government said those killed were criminals who had resisted the police.
But the death toll is the highest ever in the Rio police operation, which has drawn condemnation from human rights groups, the United Nations and an intense investigation by authorities. brazilThe Supreme Court, prosecutors and lawmakers ordered Rio state Governor Claudio Castro to provide detailed information about the operation.
Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes scheduled a hearing with the state governor and the chiefs of the military and civilian police in Rio for next Monday.
While some in Brazil, particularly right-wing voters and politicians, applauded the operation against heavily armed gangs, others questioned whether it would achieve lasting results and argued that many of those killed were low-ranking and easily replaceable.
Conservative lawmaker Ottoni De Paula told The Associated Press on Thursday that the disparity between the number of deaths of police officers and suspects raises questions to say the least.
“I think we’re dealing with an ambush attack whose sole purpose was to kill,” he said. “We cannot think that the state can give the police the right to kill anyone.”
Residents condemned the condition of the bodies, with at least one decapitated, while others were reportedly found with bruises or tied up.
Ana Tobosi, an activist and local resident, said, “This brutality cannot be normalized just because it happened here. If the country continues to applaud, it will happen elsewhere too.”
Tobosi said she was struggling even more Thursday after the adrenaline rush of the day before when she went to the Green Ridge area Wednesday morning to help in the search where several bodies were found.
“Now there is a feeling of great weakness,” she said.
The stated objective of the operation was to capture the leaders and limit the territorial expansion of the Red Command gang, which has increased its control over the favela in recent years.
The organized crime group has expanded its presence throughout Brazil in recent years, including in the Amazon rainforest.
Paulo Roberto, 16, who works as a street vendor at the famous Maracana football stadium, said the events have left him shaken.
,People People from outside will see all this happening in the favela and will not want to come anymore. It makes us look bad,” he said.
By Thursday, some families had started burying their dead. A police officer was buried in the morning in the western area of Rio.
After the funeral of Count Fernandez do Carmo Soares, 22, who lived in the Complexo de Alemão, relatives followed his coffin carrying white flowers to a nearby cemetery in Rio’s northern region.
“These boys have fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers,” Graciele, sister of Fernandes and Carmo Soares, said before the wake. “My family has been destroyed.”
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