Complexo do Alemão massacre

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Policeman and pigs in one of Rio de Janeiro's poorest areas. Picture taken from the Independent Media Center website.
Policeman and pigs in one of Rio de Janeiro's poorest areas. Picture taken from the Independent Media Center website.
Policeman searching drugs on a walker. Picture taken from the Independent Media Center website.
Policeman searching drugs on a walker. Picture taken from the Independent Media Center website.
Police cars in Complexo do Alemão on June 27, 2007 as shown by a Rede Record report about the operation.
Police cars in Complexo do Alemão on June 27, 2007 as shown by a Rede Record report about the operation.
Mother and child running during the police operation, as shown in the same report.
Mother and child running during the police operation, as shown in the same report.
Policemen and schoolchildren. Picture taken from the Independent Media Center website.
Policemen and schoolchildren. Picture taken from the Independent Media Center website.

The Complexo do Alemão massacre is the result of an ongoing conflict between drug dealers and the police in the borough of the same name in Rio de Janeiro, which is consisted by a group of large favelas in the northern region of the city. The massacre happened in June 27, 2007, when a huge Military Police-led operation killed nineteen people and injured several others. The Order of Attorneys of Brazil issued a report claiming that at least eleven of the people killed had no relations with drug trafficking whatsoever [1]. Until the end of the XV Pan-American Games a large siege was formed by the police in the region - to secure the safety of the international event, some leftists claim [2]. A recent report published by the federal government revealed that there were executions at the operation [3].

Contents

[edit] Victims

[edit] Injured

According to the United Socialist Workers' Party website, the list of injured in the operation is as it follows [4]:

Underaged

  • Luana da Silva, 8 years old
  • Larissa Andrade da Silva, 12 years old
  • Carlos Henrique Matias Vitoriano, 13 years old
  • Wesley Glauco da Silva, 17 years old
  • Ivo Urbano da Silva, 17 years old

Adults

  • Karen Cristina Baptista Borges, 20 years old
  • Valnice Alves da Silva, 27 years old
  • Mônica Pinto, 30 years old
  • Edvan Mariano de Souza, 32 years old
  • Arlete dos Santos, 48 years old

[edit] Killed

According to official records, at least 44 people were killed by the police in Complexo do Alemão since May 2, 2007 [5]. Nineteen is the number of people killed by the police at the June 27, 2007 operation. According to a report published by the Special Secretariat for Human Rights, a federal office, there were executions among these nineteen deaths, although no exact number is given [6].

[edit] Violation of children's rights

The operation also violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child in several aspects. Beside the four injured mentioned above, three of the nineteen people killed were underaged (between thirteen and sixteen years old) [7]. The United Nations Children's Fund also criticized the operation for letting thousands of children and adolescents without access to schools for weeks [8].

[edit] Response

[edit] Federal government

The Special Secretariat for Human Rights, an office attached to the Presidency of the Republic, issued a report claiming that there were executions at the operation, beside the fact that no exact number is given. Accordingly, the nineteen people killed received an average of 3.84 shots each. Fourteen were killed with a shot in the upper part of the body, six of them in the face [9].

[edit] Rio de Janeiro government

José Mariano Beltrame, the officer in charge of the Public Security Department in the state of Rio de Janeiro, responded to the federal government report by saying that "it was done in a hurry by those who are interested in deturp the fair cause of the human rights. This report reveal little about the facts, generating just a confusion". Also according to him, the federal government report is "disqualified" because the forensic doctors have not gone to Rio de Janeiro after the operation [10].

[edit] United Nations

Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, visited Complexo do Alemão on November 10, 2007 to examine if the nineteen people were executed as the report by the federal government concluded [11]. On November 12, Alston said the explanation the Police gave him, regarding the reasons for starting the operation, was not plausible [12].

[edit] References

  1. ^ "OAB suspeita de execução em operação no Rio" ("OAB suspects of execution in police operation in Rio"). Último Segundo. June 29, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  2. ^ "O Haiti é aqui, no Complexo do Alemão" ("Haiti is here, in the Complexo do Alemão"). Luciana Candido. United Socialist Workers' Party website. June 29, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  3. ^ "Relatório da União acusa operação policial no Rio de "execução sumária" ("Federal government report accuses the operation in Rio of being an execution"). Folha de S. Paulo. November 1, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  4. ^ "O Haiti é aqui, no Complexo do Alemão" ("Haiti is here, in the Complexo do Alemão"). Luciana Candido. United Socialist Workers' Party website. June 29, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  5. ^ "O Haiti é aqui, no Complexo do Alemão" ("Haiti is here, in the Complexo do Alemão"). Luciana Candido. United Socialist Workers' Party website. June 29, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  6. ^ "Relatório da União acusa operação policial no Rio de "execução sumária" ("Federal government report accuses the operation in Rio of being an execution"). Folha de S. Paulo. November 1, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  7. ^ "O Haiti é aqui, no Complexo do Alemão" ("Haiti is here, in the Complexo do Alemão"). Luciana Candido. United Socialist Workers' Party website. June 29, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  8. ^ "UNICEF critica operação da polícia no Complexo do Alemão" ("UNICEF criticizes police operation in Complexo do Alemão"). Último Segundo. June 29, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  9. ^ "Relatório da União acusa operação policial no Rio de "execução sumária" ("Federal government report accuses the operation in Rio of being an execution"). Folha de S. Paulo. November 1, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  10. ^ "Relatório da União acusa operação policial no Rio de "execução sumária" ("Federal government report accuses the operation in Rio of being an execution"). Folha de S. Paulo. November 1, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  11. ^ "Representante da ONU virá ao Rio analisar denúncias sobre sobre excessos da polícia" ("ONU rapporteur will come to Rio to analyse charges of police brutality"). O Globo. November 2, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  12. ^ "ONU: operação no Alemão não tinha argumento" ("UN: operation in Alemão had no argument"). O Dia. November 14, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2007.
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