‘It is important to see under what conditions it happened,’ Lula told reporters in Belém. ‘The judge’s order was an arrest order, not a killing order, and there was a killing.’
BELÉM (Reuters) -President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday his government would press for an independent investigation into a police operation that killed 121 people in Rio de Janeiro last week, including four police officers.
‘It is important to see under what conditions it happened,’ Lula told reporters in Belém. ‘The judge’s order was an arrest order, not a killing order, and there was a killing.’
The October 28 operation was the deadliest in Brazilian history. The action targeted the criminal faction Comando Vermelho, which controls drug trafficking in several favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
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Rio de Janeiro State authorities described the operation as a success, with Governor Cláudio Castro (PL) stating that the ‘only real victims’ were the dead police officers, claiming that all the others killed were criminals.
The operation in the Alemão and Penha favela complex highlighted a complex political landscape for Lula, who has tried to reconcile concerns about human rights violations with growing public support for the crackdown on crime.
‘The concrete fact is that the operation, from the point of view of the number of deaths, people can consider it a success, but from the point of view of the State’s action, I think it was disastrous’, said Lula.
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