SAO PAULO, March 16, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Leonel Andrade was chatting with a friend on a street in their neighborhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil, when they came under police gunfire, recounts his wife Beatriz da Silva. Da Silva, 29, told AFP of her husband's death in a favela of Baixada Santista, on the coast of Sao Paulo state, saying he was unarmed. Thousands of officers have been deployed as part of "Operation Summer" since December 18 against drug trafficking in the region. The operation has resulted in 47 "suspects" being killed in "clashes" with the police, the Sao Paulo security department told AFP. - 'I don't care' -Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, an ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, has defended the operation.
