The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, said that the President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was “appalled” by the number of deaths in Operation Containment, in Rio de Janeiro, which left more than 100 deads.
“The president was appalled by the number of fatal incidents that occurred in Rio de Janeiro,” said Lewandowski at a press conference at Palácio da Alvorada.
The minister met this Wednesday (29) with Lula and then embarked to meet with governor Claudio Castro, in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
“[Lula] also, in a way, he was surprised that an operation of this scale was launched without the federal government’s knowledge, without any possibility of the federal government being able to participate in any way with the resources they have, especially with information, with logistical support”, stated the minister.
For the minister, the operation by Rio de Janeiro police forces was “extremely violent”.
“And let’s think about whether this type of action is compatible with the Democratic Rule of Law that governs us all since the advent of the 88 Constitution”, he argued.
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According to him, given the “magnitude of the problem”, the president ordered the team to talk to Castro to identify the state’s needs and how the federal government can contribute.
“We will seek to minimize the suffering of the people, support the security forces and intensify the fight against criminal organizations wherever possible,” he said.
In an interview this Wednesday, Cláudio Castro classified the police operation as a “success”. According to him, the only victims of the clashes were the dead police officers. The governor said that the state is the epicenter of the public security problem that “ravages Brazil.”
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security has already responded to Castro’s request to transfer of 10 inmates to federal prisons who would have led, from within the prison, the retaliatory actions to the operation, which culminated in chaos in the city.
Identification of bodies
According to Lewandowski, immediately, the government will send criminal experts and forensic doctors, from the Federal Police and the National Force, to identify the bodies.
“We have a DNA and ballistics database, very well operated by the Federal Police, to elucidate crimes, to identify the dead, to know whether they are people linked to criminal organizations or not,” he said.
Furthermore, he stated that it is possible to increase the contingents of the National Force, which has been operating in the state since 2023, the PF and the Federal Highway Police.
Guarantee of Law and Order
About the possibility of decree of Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO)Lewandowski stated that it is a decision by the President of the Republic, following a formal request from the state governor. The measure allows the Armed Forces to be sent to act in public security in exceptional situations.
The last GLO was decreed by Lula in November last year, to guarantee the safety of the delegations that participated in the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
THE Minister said that the GLO hypothesis was not discussed during today’s meeting with President Lula. “This violent way of dealing with organized crime has been tried many times,” he said, defending, once again, intelligence work.
“Organized crime, today, is highly sophisticated and we believe, at the level of the federal government, that brute force and physical force are not enough. Confrontation is done with intelligence, with planning and with coordination of actions of the various forces. This is what we intend, including with the Public Security PEC that is being examined by the National Congress”, he highlighted.
THE Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) of Public Security was delivered in April to the Chamber of Deputiesby the Ministry of Justice. The proposal provides, among other measures, for greater integration between the Union and federated entities and to provide constitutional support for the Unified Public Security System (Susp), created by ordinary law in 2018.
