by SEAN POWER
From November 24 through 28, 2,700 Rio de Janeiro state police, together with over 2,000 Brazilian marine and army troops, staged Rio’s largest armed offensive against drug traffickers in decades. These joint forces took control of the neighboring Rio favelas (shantytowns) of Complexo de Alemão and Vila Cruzeiro, home to more than 400,000 residents, following small skirmishes with traffickers.
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In the November operation, official police reports indicate 50 persons were killed by security forces, all of whom the police claim were traffickers. Favela residents cite even higher numbers of persons killed, including the claim that 60 men were killed fleeing Vila Cruzeiro to the hill of Complexo de Alemão. Police have prevented families from searching for bodies and say that only three were killed in this part of the operation. Favela residents also complained that the joint forces stole and destroyed personal property and abusively questioned residents.
Speaking about this and other police attacks on favelas, sociologist and Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro professor José Cláudio Souza Alves states, “The most drastic [thing] is that those who will die in this confrontation [are members of] the innocent civilian population, that doesn’t have access to communication, health care, and electricity . . . This population will be presented in an unfair, . . . ignorant way purely oriented towards the media interests, for the sale of [media] images and for the interests of a political public safety policy . . .”