The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro (photo), said, this Thursday (24), that criminals intentionally shot at drivers and passengers on Avenida Brasil, after a Military Police operation in the so-called Complexo de Israel, in the Zona North. The action would have been a strategy to disrupt the movement of the Military Police in the community. So far, three deaths and two injured people have been confirmed..
“Intelligence said we got too close to the faction leader. And, to dissipate the police, they decided to deliberately shoot people. As the PM’s main mission is to defend people, we made the decision to back down at that moment”, he explained in an interview.
He added that “these people were not victimized or injured in an exchange of gunfire or clashes with police. They were murdered for drug trafficking. The police were on one side and the order was to shoot the people on the other side.”
The declared objective of the police operation was to combat vehicle and cargo theft, in addition to responding to a request from a telephone company that had its signal cut in the region.
Regarding the role of intelligence in planning and the operation, Castro said that the police “knew what they were doing”, but that the drug reaction was “disproportionate” compared to 15 other operations in the same location.
The governor of Rio also held the federal government responsible for allowing weapons and drugs to enter the state through ports, airports and federal roads.
“It is no longer possible for the state of Rio de Janeiro to seize 540 rifles this year alone. During my administration alone there are 1,770 rifles. Fifty-five tons of drugs this year alone. We are talking here about international arms and drug trafficking. Money laundering. This is federal competence and we need the federal government to listen so that our work can be effective”, he noted.
Criticisms from deputies
The Commission for the Defense of Human Rights and Citizenship (CDDHC) of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj) said, in a statement, that the deaths occurred after a “tragedy produced by state incompetence”. The governor is questioned for the “operation without proper planning, which negatively affects the population of several locations”.
The CDDHC also stated that the balance of the police operation shows the arrest of only one person and the seizure of two grenades. Meanwhile, three people were killed, two were injured, streets were closed, train lines were disrupted and the “right to come and go of thousands of citizens [foi] harmed.”
The CDDHC questions the use of public resources in “operations doomed to failure” and the “insistence of the state government in maintaining this warmongering logic”.
