Human rights groups criticised Brazilian authorities on Friday for endorsing a new police offensive against urban crime in which a dozen people were killed in Rio de Janeiro and security forces were deployed around the capital Brasilia.
Television images of suspected criminals and residents in a Rio de Janeiro slum running for their lives under heavy machine-gun fire from helicopters shocked a city accustomed to violence. Schools and shops in the area shut down. A 4-year-old boy, a police officer and 10 suspected drug traffickers were killed in the police raid on Wednesday.
Rio police are notorious for their heavy-handed tactics against the drug gangs that control many of the city's shantytowns, killing innocent bystanders and, according to watchdogs, often executing suspected criminals.
Government officials on Thursday justified this week's operation. "We don't want painful incidents involving children and good people. But we need to disarm the traffickers urgently," Rio Public Security Secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame said at the funeral of the police officer. Defence Minister Nelson Jobim also praised the Rio de Janeiro crackdown saying the government made the right decision "to seek confrontation and abandon reconciliation."
Human rights groups criticised their comments and denounced the police action as excessive. "The messages supporting such violent and random killing underline the government's negligence and possible ignorance in really dealing with crime," Tim Cahill of Amnesty International told Reuters on Friday by telephone. "These raids are for TV. Where are the social policies to curb crime?"
Others agreed that the poor bear the brunt of the battle. "The Rio government, now apparently backed by Lula, is practising a policy of social cleansing," said Sandra Carvalho, head of Global Justice advocacy group in Rio, referring to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"The life of the poor is worth nothing - an operation like that in Ipanema would create an international scandal," she said, referring to a posh district of Rio. A group of 35 other non-governmental groups demanded a full investigation and want officials to be held responsible. "For 10 months the Rio population has repeatedly watched arbitrary executions of supposed traffickers," they said in a statement. Lula has increased aid to state governments after being accused of doing too little to tackle urban violence.
Some 1,200 troops of the National Security Force police unit sent to Rio de Janeiro before the PanAmerican Games in June are still patrolling the city's streets. In addition, the first of 500 troops were deployed on Friday to the impoverished satellite cities surrounding Brasilia, which are among the most violent in the country.
Jobim said on Thursday he wanted to review the policy that prevents army soldiers from policing city streets. "I have no doubt the Armed Forces would boost the security perception in Rio," Jobim said.
Jobim's comments are in line with the US Pentagon, which wants Latin America armies to get more involved in the fight against crime. But the issue is a sensitive one in a region where bitter memories of the era of military dictatorships are still fresh.