Rio favelas left reeling after lethal gang raid as families bury the dead

By ELÉONORE HUGHES
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Families of the scores of people killed in a deadly gang raid by Rio de Janeiro police began burying the dead on Thursday, with residents left reeling by the scenes of carnage and livid at law enforcement whom they accuse of excessive force, torture and extrajudicial killings.

In the Vila Cruzeiro favela, where the bodies were lined up next to one another a day prior, many voiced their shock, grief and anger as government ministers and lawmakers came to hear the demands of the community.

At least 132 people were killed during Tuesday’s operation, including four policemen, according to a Thursday tally by Rio de Janeiro’s public defenders’ office.

A day after a raid that many described as feeling like a war, the low-income neighborhood showed signs of a return of everyday activities, with a few restaurants and shops once again awaiting customers.

“I came to work because I have to, but my mental health is shattered,” said Monique Santiliano, a 40-year-old local who runs a nail salon in front of the favela rights’ group CUFA in Vila Cruzeiro, part of the sprawling Penha complex of urban communities.

“This wasn’t an operation, these were assassinations. They didn’t come to arrest, they came to kill,” Santiliano added, her voice shaking.

Conservative Rio state gov. Claudio Castro said on Tuesday that Rio was at war against “narco-terrorism,” a term that echoed the Trump administration in its campaign against drug smuggling in Latin America. He called the operation a success.

Human Rights Minister Macaé Evaristo told residents and journalists gathered in Penha that she did not accept that claim and that the fight against organized crime should target masterminds and financiers.

“There’s no point in coming into our communities and exposing children, the elderly and people with disabilities to such terror,” she said.

Tuesday’s raid, conducted by some 2,500 police and soldiers, targeted the notorious gang Red Command in the Complexo de Alemao and Complexo da Penha favelas. It drew gunfire and other retaliation from gang members, sparking scenes of chaos across the city on Tuesday.

The state government said those killed were criminals who resisted the police.

But the death toll, the highest ever in a Rio police operation, sparked condemnation from human rights groups, the U.N. and intense scrutiny from authorities. Brazil’s Supreme Court, prosecutors and lawmakers ordered Rio state Gov. Claudio Castro to provide detailed information about the operation.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes scheduled a hearing with the state governor and the heads of the military and civil police next Monday in Rio.

While some in Brazil, particularly right-wing voters and politicians, applauded the operation against the heavily-armed gang, others questioned whether it would achieve lasting results and argued that many of those killed were low-ranking and easily replaceable.

Otoni de Paula, a conservative lawmaker, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the disparity between the number of deaths of police officers and of suspects at the very least raises questions.

“I think we’re dealing with an ambush whose sole objective was execution,” he said. “We cannot think that the state can grant the police the right to kill anyone.”

Residents decried the state of the bodies, with at least one decapitated, while others reportedly found with puncture wounds or tied up.

“This brutality cannot be normalized just because it happened here. If the country continues to applaud, it will happen elsewhere,” said Ana Tobossi, an activist and local resident.

Tobossi said she was struggling even more on Thursday following the adrenaline rush the day before, when she went to the green ridge area where many of the bodies were found early Wednesday morning to help in the search.

“Now comes a sense of great fragility,” she said.

The operation’s stated objectives were capturing leaders and limiting the territorial expansion of the Red Command gang, which has increased its control over favelas in recent years.

The organized crime group has also expanded its presence across Brazil in recent years, including in the Amazon rainforest.

Paulo Roberto, a 16-year-old who works as a street vendor at the famed Maracana football stadium, said that he had been left shaken by events.

“People from outside are going to see this going on in favelas and aren’t going to want to come anymore. It makes us look bad,” he said.

By Thursday, some families had begun burying their dead. A police officer was buried in the morning in Rio’s western zone.

After the funeral of 22-year-old Cauan Fernandes do Carmo Soares, who lived in Complexo de Alemao, his relatives followed his coffin to a nearby cemetery in Rio’s northern zone carrying white flowers.

“These boys have a father, a mother, sisters and brothers,” said Grasiele, Fernandes do Carmo Soares’ sister, before the wake. “My family is destroyed.”

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