I’ve mostly abandoned this platform and moved to BlueSky. But what happened in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday was too important not to share here too. This is a long thread on the police massacre in Rio. Please, take sometime to read it and consider retweeting. 1/22 +
In northern Rio de Janeiro city, there is a couple of hills called Complexo da Penha. It's Comando Vermelho ("Red Command", a drug gang), or CV, territory. CV is the greatest gang in Rio, second in the whole Brazil. 2/22 +
3/22 Drug wars in Rio are mainly divided between two different kinds of organization: comandos and milícias. Milícias are corrupt cops and ex-cops that mainly practice extortion, while trafficking as a side hustle; comandos focus on drugs and extort as a side hustle. +
4/ Comandos are not policemen, but usually pay cops to operate more freely. Jair Bolsonaro lives in Rio and his family has close ties to milícias. Our current governor, Cláudio Castro, is also a Bolsonarista with close ties to milícias. He is being investigated for corruption.+
5/ During COVID, the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) forbade police invasions of favelas. While those restrictions were in effect, CV grew and the milícias shrank. Losing territory, infighting broke out among milícias. +
6/ This means milícias need police invasions to claim new territories. And, knowingly or not, police invasions usually mean the expansion of a milícia group. About 100,000 people live in Complexo da Penha. It’s huge, and its extortion market is huge too. +
7/ Milícias have been salivating over Penha for years. On Tuesday, far-right governor Cláudio Castro decided to arrest in one single day what he called “CV’s C-levels/managers.” This is a lie. The real high-ups in CV do not live in Penha or in poor neighbourhoods. +
8/ He did arrest 80 people. But the operation was a huge screw-up. CV in Penha resisted the invasion. Four policemen were shot dead. When cops are killed, police oftenly terrorizes the local population. +
9/ Most people from comandos live their whole lives in the same favelas. It's their world. They are not “nice” to the community, but have real emotional ties to it. At first, the governor himself announced that the operation was a huge success. +
10/ Today, he even said: “I'm only sad about the four policemen dead; they are the only innocents in this story.” The official numbers were: 4 policemen dead, 60 drug traffickers executed, and 80 arrests. This would already be awful.+
11/ But the reality was way worse. Everyone who cares to pay attention to how those things happen knew that 60 dead was a lie. The police probably executed way more people and hid the corpses, especially innocents tortured for info.+
12/ And we were right. Today, common people from Penha entered the woods on one side of the mountain. The region is called Pedreira, as it is an inactive quarry. They found 60+ dead bodies, some with clear marks of torture.+
13/ A beheaded young male. Most shot in the back or in the head. The total count is between 121–128. The people from Penha decided to carry the bodies to a plaza in their neighbourhood. And that first picture is the drone photo of the scene. +
14/ The police commander claimed he will try to indict the people who moved the bodies for tampering with a criminal case. He didn't say a word about prosecuting policemen for these brutalities. Rio has mandatory cop bodycams. +
15/ But, according to the police press release, they were “out of battery” on Tuesday. Local media were staunch supporters of the operation. Wednesday, the images of the plaza filled with dead bodies shamed them a little bit. +
16/ It's the worst mass murder since the Araguaia peasants’ guerrilla slaughter in 1972, at the height of the dictatorship. After the massacre, CV tried to disrupt daily life in Rio using buses to block traffic. No one died or was even hurt. +
17/ The Supreme Court (STF) sent an official letter to governor Cláudio Castro demanding explanations. Lula’s government wasn’t as forceful. Other far-right governors published statements praising Castro and Rio's police. +
18/ They offered “help”, sending troops and etc, which would be unconstitutional. Our DOJ claimed the federal government wasn’t informed about the operation. It also claimed Castro repeatedly refused help from Lula. +
19/ It’s an incredibly sad week. However, I've been a human rights advocate for 20 years and it is the first time many usually pro-police sectors of society finally spoke up against an operation. Maybe we can mobilize society for change. BLM-like protests will happen today.+
20/ If you are not from Brazil, you can help us by sharing this story, its articles, and so on. It's quite clear how negative international repercussion changes, for instance, our MSM’s response to the massacre. +
21/ If you know of any independent media outlets interested in discussing the police massacre in Rio in more detail, my DMs are open. I worked for The Intercept Brasil until very recently and have been featured on QAA Podcast episodes about Latin America. +
22/22 I'd love to speak with any independent media org or recommend someone else. This went viral on Blue Sky, I thought I should adapt it to twitter. Thanks you all +
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