At six o’clock in the morning, special forces invaded the narrow streets of the Favela Fallet in Rio de Janeiro. They had apparently gotten a tip where there were juvenile drug dealers of the „Red Command“ who had been dealing with other gangs in the days before.
The „first massacre under Bolsonaro“?
When the operation was over on 8 February, horror erupted in the poor settlement of Fallet. Residents discovered 15 killed youths who showed signs of executions. Neighbors speak of the „first massacre of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro“.
Tatiana Carvalho holds up her son’s autopsy report. The 22-year-old Felipe was therefore not killed in a shootout with the police – but by stabbing. Tatiana has cell phone photos showing Felipe’s guts hanging out. They are to document that their son – who was a member of the „Red Command“ – was executed. „Does not a gangster have any rights?“ Complains Tatiana.
Umbrella confused with weapons
The processing of the police operation in the Favela Fallet is still ongoing. But it is already clear that Brazil is pursuing a tougher security policy under Bolsonaro. Apparently also outside the legal framework, as human rights activists criticize.
João Luis from the non-governmental organization Rio de Paz points to a white tower towering above a police station. From there, snipers of the police would shoot at residents of the Favela Manguinhos – at least those who are armed. But in the first months of the year, according to Rio de Paz, the police killed innocent people traveling with a jack or an umbrella.
Did state snipers kill innocents?
This is suggested by the autopsy report by Carlos Eduardo de Santos. The 27-year-old was shot in January in pouring rain, apparently by sniper. He was not a gangster but had a steady job. Even as his family mourned, the Governor of Rio – a Bolsonaro confidant – confirmed that snipers are now secretly being used.
History clipping à la Bolsonaro
The fact that Bolsonaro now consistently implements its campaign promise to crack down on criminals is hardly met with criticism in Brazil. But its verbal derailments. The right-wing extremists declared that Brazil never had a military coup and ordered the military to celebrate the beginning of the 21-year dictatorship (1964-1985). Fittingly, the term „dictatorship“ should be deleted from the textbooks.
Civil rights activists are as outraged as historians and opposition politicians about this kind of historiography. Even observers abroad come more and more often to the conclusion that Bolsonaro is not up to his office. So he had announced during his visit to the Israeli memorial Yad Vashem, the „NSDAP was a leftist party“. He could have read on the spot that the Nazi regime is classified as right-wing extremist.
