Brazil: New military operation against the people in Complexo da Maré
Featured image: Reactionary military during the occupation of the Complexo dea Maré. Photo: Tomas Silva/ Agência Brasil
A new military operation by the “National Force” and the Navy is being planned against the people of the Complexo da Maré, a group of favelas in the north of Rio de Janeiro. This decision is made by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security of the Luiz Inácio da Silva government. The decision was made under the pretext of the “war on crime” after alleged videos of “military training” of traffickers with weapons exclusive to the reactionary Brazilian Army came to light. The democratic newspaper A Nova Democracia (AND) also denounces that there is no answers from the reactionary government to the question of why these weapons have remained in the hands of traffickers, and asks, “How many agents will sell weapons for exclusive use in this next operation?”
This supposed “war on crime”, which has been going on for years and has not solved anything, ends up becoming an open war against the people. In these raids, unpunished murders happen against residents of the favelas that have nothing to do with the gangs. Military operations are very frequent and show the violence of the State against the people. AND brought to light that 45 people had been murdered in “crimes of revenge” by the State, that is, raids in favelas, in less than five days. Among the dead, 10 were in favelas in Rio de Janeiro, another 16 in São Paulo and another 19 in Bahia. All of this without taking into account the “disappeared” after state intervention.
Also on September 27, 2023, there were two more deaths in another State operation in the favelas of Bahia. This brings the total number of murdered during this month only in the favelas of Bahia by the State to 52. On the 20th of September, we also wrote on nine other deaths in Bahia where da Silva’s demagogic double standard was exposed, who, now that it is his party that is behind the deaths of dozens of people in a single month, instead of “condemning” it, remains silent while the governor of Bahia, that is from his party, Jerônimo Rodrigues, encourages the police to “not make truce”.
Complexo da Maré has been suffering this type of military interventions for years. In June 2007, a mega-operation “against drugs” was carried out in the Complexo do Alemão. This military operation ended up being an open war against the poor people who live in the favelas, where 11 of the 19 people who were murdered had no relationship with drug trafficking, and some of the others murdered were only “suspicious.” Again, in 2010 the Army, the Military, Civil and Federal Police carried out another joint operation that ended with an Army military operation until July 2012. In addition to murders, the rights of the people were violated day after day, by entering houses of the residents, repressing the demonstrations they carried out due to the situation they were experiencing and restricting democratic freedoms.
You can see AND’s special report on the terror of the old State in the favela here:
