Police Raid on Rio de Janeiro Favela Leaves 25 Dead,

with reports of execution-style killings

By Democracy Now

HAVANA TIMES – In Brazil, at least 25 people were killed Thursday as heavily armed police raided one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas. The assault by anti-narcotics officers came despite a Brazilian Supreme Court order prohibiting such raids during the pandemic. It was the deadliest single police assault in Rio’s history. Residents of the Jacarezinho favela said police arrived with guns blazing.

Jacarezinho resident: “They pointed a gun at me. With a rifle, they told me that I had to die, because I went to talk to them. Just because I asked where my son’s body was, they pointed a gun at me.”

Reporter “Did your child die today?”

Jacarezinho resident: “He died. They arrived shooting.”

Human rights groups condemned the raid as a massacre with clear signs of execution-style killings, citing video showing bloodstained mattresses and blood-soaked stairwells. Two passengers on a passing commuter train were injured by stray gunfire. Amnesty International said, “It’s completely unacceptable that security forces keep committing grave human rights violations … against residents of the favelas, who are mostly Black and live in poverty.”

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