De Moraes orders Rio’s Governor to explain Operation Containment
De Moraes was chosen following Justice Barroso’s retirement
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre De Moraes ruled on Wednesday that Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro must appear in a hearing on Nov. 3 to account for the outcome of Operation Containment, which left at least 119 people dead.
The operation was carried out last Tuesday by the civil and military police of Rio de Janeiro in the Alemão and Penha favelas to execute 180 search and seizure warrants and 100 arrest warrants, 30 of which were issued by the state of Pará. According to the Rio government, the goal was to contain the expansion of the Comando Vermelho criminal faction. There were also 113 arrests, 33 of whom were people from other states operating in Rio de Janeiro.
The clashes and retaliations carried out by the criminal faction impacted expressways, public services, and even the operation of companies in the city, which closed their doors early and released their employees.
Castro classified the operation as a success, but human rights defenders denounced the action as a slaughter and massacre. Relatives of the dead point out that the bodies found had signs of execution, such as shots to the head and even mutilations.
The judge’s decision was handed down in the context of the case known as ADPF das Favelas, in which the Court has already determined measures to combat police lethality in the state capital.
De Moraes was chosen to make urgent decisions involving the case in the absence of a rapporteur following the retirement last week of Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, Agencia Brasil explained.
Separately, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his deep concern over the number of victims and called for an immediate investigation and assurances that any police action would comply with international human rights standards, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said. I can say that the secretary-general is deeply concerned about the large number of victims during yesterday’s police operation in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Dujarric pointed out in a statement.
Experts interviewed by Agência Brasil classified Operation Containment as one of the deadliest in the country’s recent history and stated that the population was in the line of fire. For them, the massive use of force exposes the persistence of strategies that result in large-scale deaths, chiefly impacting residents of vulnerable territories.
Also on Wednesday, De Moraes explained that amnesty for former President Bolsonaro was not possible because the Brazilian justice system worked with complete independence and autonomy and that all of this did not alter the legal process in Brazil one iota. Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years for attempting a coup d’état against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
We cannot confuse pacification with impunity. We are talking about a criminal organization that attempted to attack institutions, that attempted to shut down the Superior Electoral Court, that planned the assassination of the president-elect and the vice president, he emphasized.