Ignacio Cano, professor at Rio de Janeiro State University (Uérj) and member of the Laboratory for the Analysis of Violence, stated that the massive police operation carried out in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone, marked by a massacre with more than 100 deaths, follows a “war logic” designed to “maximize the number of deaths” and consolidate a political project based on the “a good criminal is a dead criminal” narrative.
The Operation Containment, carried out on Tuesday (28) by Rio de Janeiro’s Civil and Military Police, has so far left 121 people dead — 117 civilians and four police officers. At a press conference, right-wing Governor Cláudio Castro described the action as a “success” and recognized only the police officers as victims. “Not only does the governor believe these people’s lives are worthless, he considers it a triumph to have killed, or as he puts it, ‘neutralized’ them,” Cano criticized in an interview with BdF Radio.
According to the researcher, the Rio de Janeiro state government “presents the record number of deaths as a historic achievement,” in a context of competition among governors aligned with bolsonarismo, in which violence is used as a public visibility tool. He believes the operation had “a political intention, carried out in a pre-electoral year,” and that “right-wing and far-right forces are converging around this operation to position themselves for next year.”
Cano also noted that Governor Cláudio Castro’s discourse aligns with that of U.S. President Donald Trump and far-right governments in Latin America. “His agenda fits perfectly with the agenda of the United States and of countries that have been adopting the term ‘narcoterrorism.’ This is extremely concerning because it seeks to erase the distinction between war and public security,” he warned.
Operation designed to ‘maximize deaths’
The professor described the mega-operation as “a gigantic tragedy” and “one of the largest police massacres in Latin America.” “In the governor’s view, which, unfortunately, is not only his, it is a war-like vision. They are trying to cause the highest number of casualties in the enemy army. The ‘score’ is now about 120 to four. And for them, that is clearly favorable,” he pointed out.
He emphasized that, unlike previous operations, this incursion was designed to prevent suspects from fleeing. “Historically, the police enter, kill two or three, and the rest escape. But this time, the operation was planned to stop them from fleeing and to ensure they had no way out,” he explained. “We have more people killed than arrested, which is already an indicator of the brutality of the operation,” he noted.
Cano added that, given the scale of the violence, “it is inevitable that there were several summary executions” and argued for the deployment of federal forensic experts to investigate the deaths. “Any federal involvement should include forensic pathologists to determine which of these deaths were truly the result of confrontation and which were summary executions,” he said.
Comparing the case to past massacres, such as Carandiru and the “Crimes of May,” in São Paulo, the researcher stated that the operation may “become the largest massacre in Brazil’s history.” “In a single day, in a single operation, the extremely high number of deaths keeps rising. It will be a landmark of tragedy in the future,” he predicted. “Unfortunately, I do not rule out the possibility of some lawmaker trying to get elected based on the total death count, as has already happened in São Paulo,” he lamented.
Lack of accountability and impunity
Cano assessed that the chances of punishment for those responsible are slim. “Our track record is very poor. It is extremely difficult to secure a conviction against a police officer for a summary execution. Unfortunately, the Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecutor’s Office does not fulfill its constitutional role of external control over police activity,” he said.
For him, without an independent federal investigation, similar to the one carried out after the “Pan Massacre” in 2007, accountability will not advance. “That is precisely the kind of assistance we would need today. It doesn’t require any GLO [Guarantee of Law and Order], but it would hardly be accepted by the state government,” he argued.
