Regular teams from Rio de Janeiro’s civil and military police raided the Alemao complex to take down an alleged criminal organization. The group was suspected of involvement in cargo theft and bank robberies and planned raids on rival slums, military police said in a statement. At least 18 people died in the raid: one policeman, 16 alleged criminals and a female bystander, police said. About 400 officers, four aircraft and 10 armored vehicles took part in the operation. The disproportionate death toll has sparked fears of rights abuses. Residents carry a body covered in a white sheet on a cart in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 21, 2022.AP “There are signs of serious human rights violations and the possibility that this is one of the operations with the highest number of deaths in Rio de Janeiro,” the state public defender’s office said in a statement. Military police declined to comment beyond their statement. Rio state police forces regularly carry out deadly raids on the city’s large slums. President Jair Bolsonaro backs tough police tactics in the fight against organized crime and has said gangsters should “die like cockroaches”. A police officer walks during an operation against drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil July 21, 2022. REUTERS After the raid, locals could be seen piling injured people into the back of vehicles to be taken to hospital as police watched. Gilberto Santiago Lopes, of the Anacrim Human Rights Commission, said the police refused to help. “We had to get them into a drinks truck and then flag down a local resident in their car to take them to the hospital,” he said. “(The police) don’t aim to arrest them, they aim to kill them, so if they get hurt, they think they don’t deserve help.” Residents stand next to dead bodies during a police operation against drug gangs in the Alemao slum complex July 21, 2022. REUTERS The local residents were enraged and called the police. “We are afraid to live here,” screamed one local after the raid. “Where are we? Afghanistan? At war? In Iraq? If they want war, send them to Iraq.”
