RIO DE JANEIRO – The lethality of the state security forces in Rio de Janeiro communities has been increasing. In the last 14 months alone, the state capital registered three of the four most lethal operations in history. In this period, 71 people were killed in just three operations in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Operation takes terror to Alemão and closes schools, health centers and businesses
The most lethal among all actions involving public agents took place in Jacarezinho, in the North Zone, in May 2021, when 28 people died. A year later, in May 2022, 25 people were killed during a police operation in Vila Cruzeiro, also in the North Zone.
On Thursday (21), an action with military and civil police officers resulted in 18 more deaths during a raid in Complexo do Alemão, another group of favelas in Rio’s North Zone. Among those killed are a woman, a policeman and 16 suspects, according to the Military Police.
The three operations organized by public security forces are highlighted in a list that counts deaths, but also portrays the routine of those who live in poor communities in the Marvelous City.
See the most lethal operations in the city of Rio de Janeiro:
- Jacarezinho (May 2021) – 28 dead;
- Vila Cruzeiro (May 2022) – 25 dead;
- Complexo do Alemão (June 2007) – 19 dead;
- Complexo do Alemão (July 2022) – 18 dead;
- Senador Camará (January 2003) – 15 dead;
- Fallet/Fogueteiro (February 2019) – 15 dead;
- Complexo do Alemão (July 1994) – 14 dead;
- Complexo do Alemão (May 1995) – 13 dead;
- Morro do Vidigal (July 2006) – 13 dead;
- Catumbi (April 2007) – 13 dead;
- Complexo do Alemão (August 2004) – 12 dead;
Source: GENI/UFF
If we consider the numbers for the whole state, the list of operations with the most deaths would have to include a Military Police action in Vila Operária, in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense, in January 1998, which ended with 23 deaths.
77 killings in Complexo do Alemão
As can be seen in the list of the most lethal operations in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the third operation with the highest number of deaths in the state capital also took place in Complexo do Alemão in 2007, with 19 people killed.
The North Zone of Rio is by far the region most affected by violence during police operations. Of the 11 actions registered on the list, seven took place in slums in the North Zone. Of this total, five were in the Complexo do Alemão. In all, 77 people were killed in just five police operations in that set of slums.
A little less than 4 km away from the Complexo do Alemão is the group of communities known as Complexo da Penha, where the Vila Cruzeiro favela is located. There, the second most lethal operation in history took place, with 24 deaths. That is, in this small part of the city, 101 people lost their lives during only six state police actions.
The most lethal in the history of RJ
The most lethal police operation in the history of Rio de Janeiro took place on May 6, 2021, in Jacarezinho, in Rio’s Zona Norte. On that day 28 people died. One of the dead was the civilian police officer André Leonardo de Mello Frias, from the Drug Enforcement Department (Dcod). At the time, the Civil Police informed that the other 27 killed were criminals, but did not reveal their identities or the circumstances in which they were killed.
A year after the most lethal operation in history, 10 out of 13 MP’s investigations about the case were filed. The archived investigations are related to 24 of the deaths – more than 82% of the total.
Police officers Douglas Lucena Peixoto Siqueira and Anderson Silveira Pereira, both from the Special Resources Coordination (Core), are defendants in court for the death of Omar Pereira da Silva, 21, shot in Beco da Síria. Sociologist Daniel Hirata, from Geni/UFF, classified the operation as unacceptable and said, at the time, that the action was more serious than chacinas such as the one in Baixada Fluminense, in 2005, or the one in Vigário Geral, in 1993.
“It was the most lethal operation in our database, there is no way to qualify it other than as a disastrous operation (…) It is an action authorized by the police authorities, which makes the situation much more serious,” said the researcher.
25 dead in Vila Cruzeiro
In May 2022, military police and Federal Highway Police (PRF) agents carried out an operation in Vila Cruzeiro, in Complexo da Penha. With 25 deaths, the action in the North Zone favela was the second most lethal in the state.
The Military Police command said that the operation had been planned for months, but was carried out on an emergency basis to prevent an alleged migration of drug traffickers to Rocinha, in the South Zone.
Complexo do Alemão in third place
Last Thursday (21), residents of Complexo do Alemão awoke once again to an exchange of gunfire between criminals and police, in addition to the noise of helicopters flying over the community and becoming targets for tracer fire.
In all, 18 people died during the operation. The police contingent reached 400 agents from the Military Police’s Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE) and the Civil Police’s Special Resources Coordination (CORE). Four helicopters and 10 armored vehicles were also used during the action.
Study: lethality does not reduce violence
A 2019 survey by the Public Prosecutor’s Office showed that the increase in police violence does not decrease the occurrence of crimes or homicides in Rio. The study concludes that:
- Police lethality does not cause a reduction in homicides and robberies;
- Rio has the most lethal police, but is among the 10 most violent;
- areas where there is the greatest reduction in murders did not have an increase in police killings;
- Sporadic police actions have not been able to reduce the public security problem;
- confrontations increase the risk of killing innocent people and affecting public services.
- During RJ’s most lethal operation, in Jacarezinho, in 2021, residents reported more deaths than officially
- counted, in addition to bodies on the ground, home invasions and confiscated cell phones.
