Again massacres against the people in Brazil
In the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, military police massacred 11 people in Complexo do Salgueiro, a set of favelas comprised of seven communities in São Gonçalo, where around 60,000 people live, on the 23rd of March. The military police also shot at two elderly women who were injured. 80 police officers, helicopters and five armored vehicles participated into the slaughter. At the same time, similar operations were carried out in Complexo da Maré, in the north zone of the capital Rio de Janeiro, and in Comunidade da Tijuquinha, where two were shot to death. The Military Police claims they were after gang members and drug traffickers, and that ”at least 9” of the 13 killed were gang members. However, videos and pictures shared in Twitter show how school children lay on the floor of their classroom to avoid being hit by the intense firing outside, and how the helicopters are firing around randomly.
Additionally, a worker was murdered in Erechim, Rio Grande do Sul on the 23rd of March by an officer of the Military Brigade. Video shows him laying on the ground after being shot in the heart, as well as the police kicking the men who tried to help him. According to the brother of the murdered man, there was no arrest warrant on him.
You can watch the video here: https://anovademocracia.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/337348289_1168775690461637_9188643305594562091_n.m
This type of events are nothing new in the poorest neighborhoods of Brazil, it is the ”war on drugs”, proposed by US low-intensity-warfare strategy, once again. AND writes that in order to keep the poorest in line, the state needs terror. From 2000 to 2014 2000 people were killed in ”high lethality” operations, and this number excludes ”medium” and ”low lethality” operations. Surveys show that in Complexo da Maré nine of ten deaths during police operations show signs of extrajudicial execution, with the police carrying out the task of the court and the executioner. According to the statistics, the greatest threat is not gang violence but the police: around two thirds of violent events were caused by the police in Rio de Janeiro. The Human Rights Watch published a research already in 2016, which reveals that the Brazilian military police routinely kills people, even children, in the favelas and covers up the tracks by tampering evidence, reporting of ”shootouts with armed gangs”, and the courts do not investigate this. This is very common especially in Rio de Janeiro, which has the largest favelas, but it also happens all over Brazil: for example in 2022, in the state of Paraná 488 were killed by the police.
Other than the favelas, this war against the people is also seen in the countryside. The attacks against poor peasants, who struggle for their right for land, have been going on for decades, and the military police is actively participating in massacres. Recently it was revealed that the military police has been involved in the torture of more than 200 poor peasants in grape harvest in in Bento Gonçalves, in the Serra Gaúcha, where peasants were kept in slave-like conditions. The officers of the military police had threatened to kill anyone who would film or complain about the conditions. In March, the military police had acted as a “mediator” and a defender of the militia of the landlords who terrorized the peasant community of Baixão dos Rochas in São Benedito do Rio Preto, in the state of Maranhão. The peasants have been a target for attacks since the companies Terpa Construções SA and Bomar Maricultura LTDA started stealing their land in 2021. Also in March, the military police escorted gunmen of the Latifundio, who attacked indigenous people of Guarani-Kaiowá Kurupi community.
