Police operation in Rio favela leaves at least eight people dead
Source: Guardian
Allegations that some of the victims were innocent residents executed in a revenge mission after a police officer was killed there
Dom Phillips and Júlio Carvalho in Rio de Janeiro
@domphillips
Sun 25 Mar 2018 12.01 EDT
A police operation in a Rio favela has left at least eight people dead amid allegations that some of the victims were innocent residents executed in a revenge mission after a police officer was killed there this week. Police said they were attacked by drug gangsters.
The bloody operation in the Rocinha favela, located near postcard beaches like Leblon, came six months after the army briefly occupied the favela following a week of gun battles between rival drug gangs, and five weeks after president Michel Temer put the military in charge of Rio security .
The incident came eleven days after the assassination of Rio councillor Marielle Franco who had denounced recent killings of favela residents blamed on the citys notoriously lethal police. In 2017, according to official figures, 1,115 people were killed as a result of opposition to police intervention in Rio state.
Residents said one of the victims of Saturdays operation, Matheus de Oliveira, 19, had no involvement with the drug trade. He was in a group that did waltz presentations dressed in replica navy uniforms.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/25/police-operation-in-rio-favela-leaves-at-least-eight-people-dead