Is there no end to Rio de Janeiro’s cycle of violence?

A police operation conducted on May 6 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and despite a Supreme Court order banning it resulted in the deaths of 28 people in Rio’s Jacarezinho favela.

On May 6, residents of Rio de Janeiro’s Jacarezinho favela were awakened by gut-wrenching screams and sounds of gunshots. Once the mayhem subsided and they gathered enough courage to step outside their homes, they came face to face with dozens of bloodied corpses scattered in the favela’s narrow alleyways. What they were witnessing was the aftermath of the most lethal police operation in the city to date. In the early hours of the morning, some 200 heavily armed police officers stormed Jacarezinho with bulletproof helicopters and armoured vehicles in search of “suspects” from the “Red Command” – the criminal group that is currently “governing” the favela. A few hours later, 28 people, including a police officer, were dead.