Brazil's Operation Shield: At least nine killed in new clash between police and gangs

A police operation targeting criminal gangs in slums areas in Rio de Janeiro killed at least nine people on Wednesday (August 2), authorities said. This is the latest in a series of deadly security force raids across Brazil in which at least 45have been killed, including 14 in Sao Paulo state and 19 in the northeastern state of Bahia.

According to Rio state police, officers had returned fire after coming under attack during a raid on a meeting by organised crime leaders. The meeting was apparently in the Complexo da Penha group of favelas, which is on the city's north side.

The police said in a statement that during the operation, one officer was wounded but is stable in hospital.

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They said in a statement: "A clash occurred when police teams came under attack by gunmen at the scene. Eleven suspects were wounded" and taken to the hospital. Nine of them died of their injuries."

Police said that Fiel and Du Leme are among those who were killed. They were the leaders of the impoverished Juramento and Chatuba neighbourhoods, known locally as 'favelas'.

The authorities said that seven rifles, ammunition and grenades have been seized from the suspects' possession.

Dani Monteiro, who is a Rio state legislator, said that the operation came just over a year after a May 2022 raid in a nearby favela that left 23 dead, which is dubbed as the second-deadliest police operation in the city's history.

She criticised Rio state Governor Claudio Castro, a security hardliner and ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro and called that raid a "massacre".

"Castro's (in)security policy must stop!" Monteiro, a lawmaker for the left-wing PSOL party, wrote on X.

Police launched a massive anti-gang operation after a 30-year-old special forces officer was shot dead Thursday last week in Sao Paulo. The officer was on patrol in the port city of Guaruja.

Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, another Bolsonaro ally, said that the police have killed 14 alleged criminals so far during the operation.

In the northeastern state of Bahia, officials meanwhile said 19 suspects in three different cities had been killed since Friday in clashes with police.

The authorities have claimed that police had returned fire after coming under attack.

(With inputs from agencies)

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