
Brazil: New Police Operation brings Terror in the Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro
Last Monday, January 14, the Complexo do Alemão woke up under an atmosphere of tension and danger due to a large police operation. The attack of the Police ended with at least four detainees and three murdered among the residents. A police was also shot during the operation.
The attack included armored vehicles and different groups of the repressive forces such as COE (Special Operations Command), BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) and several battalions of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro, including reinforcements from other neighborhoods, such as Recreio, as reported by the newspaper A Nova Democracia.
During the early hours, an armored helicopter of the Military Police was performing low-flights over the complex while armored vehicles were parking in the access points of the hill. The shots came shortly after. A shot woman was reported after 9 am and the execution of a man by the repressive forces was denounced shortly after by his neighbors and relatives. According to the Military Police, they wanted to execute warrant orders of 14 people, but videos online show how BOPE randomly invaded homes of residents and harassing them.
They also caused damages to resident’s vehicles by crashing into them with armored vehicles (popularly called caveirão) and even setting homes and cars of the residents ablaze. One of them stated the following to an AND local correspondent: “There are at least two cars and a motorcycle damaged. The caveirão started hitting everything, even houses, while trying to climb a slope full of oil.”

