Deadly police shootout prompts claims of abuse in Brazil

A bloody, hourslong gunbattle in a Rio de Janeiro slum is echoing into a new day, with authorities saying the police mission successfully eliminated two dozen criminals, while residents and activists claim human rights abuses

RIO DE JANEIRO -- A bloody, hourslong gunbattle in a Rio de Janeiro slum echoed into Friday, with authorities saying the police mission successfully eliminated two dozen criminals while residents and activists claimed human rights abuses. It was just after sunrise Thursday when dozens of officers from Rio de Janeiro state’s civil police stormed Jacarezinho, a favela in the city’s northern zone. They were targeting drug traffickers from one of Brazil’s most notorious criminal organizations, Comando Vermelho, and the bodies piled up quickly. When the fighting stopped, there were 25 dead — one police officer and 24 people described by the police as “criminals.” Rio's moniker of “Marvelous City” can often seem a cruel irony in the favelas, given their stark poverty, violent crime and subjugation to drug traffickers or militias. But even here, Thursday’s clash was a jarring anomaly that analysts declared one of the city's deadliest police operations ever.