AND: PT is responsible for nine deaths in just three days in Bahia
Featured image: Flávio Dino, Jerônimo Rodrigues and Luiz Inácio at an event in Brasília. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert
We publish an unofficial translation of the article of A Nova Democracia from Brazil published here.
On September 15th an operation with more than 100 police officers was launched in the Valéria neighborhood, on the outskirts of Salvador. The operation brought terror to the residents of the Palestine, Periperi and Cajazeiros XI communities, whose bus circulation was affected and schools were closed (more than 2,368 students had their studies affected). Named “Fauda”, it was commanded by the Federal Police [FP] and had support from the military and civil police, under the justification of combating drug trafficking in the region and began in the early hours of Friday. After an agent was killed during the beginning of the operation, the operation continued throughout the weekend, with at least nine people murdered so far, in retaliation for the agent’s murder.
Regarding the most recent massacre, Jerônimo Rodrigues instructed the police to “not let-up”, in addition to expressing solidarity with the dead police officer: “What is fulfilled is the determination of President Lula, Minister Flávio Dino and Governor Jerônimo and, naturally, from my secretary Marcelo [Werner, from the Security secretariat], so that we do not let-up”. The reactionary Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, also showed solidarity with the dead FP agent and tried to increase the reactionary violence against the people of Bahia: he ordered the vice-general director of the Federal Police to go to Bahia, in addition to sending FP armored vehicles and a contingent of agents – all under the prerogative of combating drug trafficking and supporting operations in the State that recorded the highest police fatality rate this year.
In 2021, a year before the presidential elections, Luiz Inácio reacted to the Jacarezinho massacre: “It is serious for a police operation to end up with the death of 25 people. This is not public safety. It is the absence of the State offering education and employment that is the cause of much of the violence. Brazilians are dying without vaccines, from hunger and from violence. Brazilian lives matter.” In all his electoral demagogy, regarding the massacres that happened today under his government, he remains silent. The absence of statements condemning the current massacres, however, does not hide the fact that the responsibility for the Federal Police’s recent actions in Bahia ultimately lies with his government.
The State of Bahia, governed by the PT for 17 years, has been a recurring scene of revenge operations and violent actions perpetrated by the old state’s repressive forces and also by delinquent groups. According to the Public Security Yearbook, released this year by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, in 2022 alone there were 1,464 deaths resulting from police interventions in Bahia, representing around 22% of executions by police officers in the country. This year, according to the Violence Monitor, Bahia was the state that had the most violent deaths, reaching a total of 2,512 deaths. Just over a month ago we saw the appalling scenes of a true massacre: around 32 people were brutally murdered by police troops, to the praise of the reactionary governor Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT-BA).
More recently, on September 12th, the 30-year-old worker Jhonatas Bispo dos Santos, was murdered by the Military Police while helping a neighbor who was moving, in the neighborhood of Narandiba, on the outskirts of Salvador. Jhonatas, who owned a car wash, was shot in the chest and leg. According to family members and neighbors, the police arrived at the scene shooting without a reason and that there was no confrontation taking place at the time. The angry residents set fire to a bus and protested demanding justice. No statement of solidarity from the minister, governor or president was made.
Also according to the annual register, the state of Bahia increased spending on public security by 14.2% between 2021 and 2022. The total spent in 2022 was R$5.2 billion. This year alone, minister Flávio Dino allocated more than R$3.9 million to the public security area of Bahia, in addition to new vehicles, weapons and other equipment, just as, with smiles, he did with Cláudio Castro, governor. murderer and terrorist from Rio de Janeiro.
With the support of the PT and Luiz Inácio in the federal government, and following the example of Cláudio Castro (PL-RJ) and Tarcísio de Freitas (RR-SP), the government of Jerônimo Rodrigues has been successful in intensifying the reactionary civil war against the people.
