After Lethal Police Operation in Rio, the Right Promotes a Strong Hand in Brazil

Tuesday’s mega-operation in two favela complexes in Rio de Janeiro left at least 117 suspected criminals and four police officers dead, and was described as “a success” against “narcoterrorism” by the state governor, the conservative Cláudio Castro.

While the harsh images of dozens of bodies lined up on the street of one of the favelas remain fresh, after being rescued by neighbors, a group of Bolsonaro legislators on Thursday gave their support to the operation, which sought to hit the Red Command (CV).

After meeting with security chiefs responsible for the operation in Rio, lawmakers said they will accelerate approval of a proposal to classify the CV and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil’s two largest criminal factions, as “terrorist organizations.”

The proposal “is in the process of being voted on” in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies, said congresswoman Chris Tonietto, of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, at a press conference. “It will be another step forward in the fight against organized crime.”

At his side, the Secretary of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, Felipe Curi, defended the classification, which would allow security forces to use more lethal weapons to “neutralize” criminals.

“Brazilian legislation is extremely soft,” Curi declared.

The police action generated outrage among human rights organizations, and the UN demanded an immediate investigation.

Relatives of some killed denounced summary executions. An AFP journalist found a decapitated body.

For his part, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sought to be firm, saying that Brazil cannot “accept” organized crime and at the same time advocated fighting it without endangering police officers and civilians.

The leftist, accused even by his voters of being lax in the face of insecurity, also approved this Thursday a law that reinforces the fight against organized crime.

The episode fueled the heavy-handed discourse among a population tired of chronic insecurity.

The operation in the favelas “was timely, effective and necessary. It should have been done even earlier, because what we see today is that citizens do not feel safe on the street: one leaves home but does not know if they will be able to return,” Anselmo Pereira, a 67-year-old retiree in Meier, a middle-class neighborhood in the northern part of Rio, told AFP.

A study by the Getulio Vargas Foundation showed on Thursday that the online behavior of almost two million people in Brazil after the operation showed great political polarization and above all strong pressure from the public for the authorities to take measures to combat crime, reported the g1 portal.

At the same time, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president, said on Thursday that he will travel with his brother, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, to El Salvador to learn strategies to combat drug trafficking from President Nayib Bukele.

Flávio Bolsonaro had suggested last week that the United States bomb ships in Rio de Janeiro, in the same way that the Donald Trump administration carries out a campaign against what it defines as “narcoterrorism” in the Caribbean.

Popular congressman Nikolas Ferreira, with 19 million followers on Instagram, published an image of the Salvadoran megaprison with hundreds of naked gang members with the caption: “My idea is this. You have been warned.”