At least 25 people have been killed after heavily armed police stormed one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas in pursuit of drug traffickers, in what was the deadliest raid in the city’s history. By lunchtime at least 25 people were reported dead, among them André Frias, a drug squad officer who was shot in the head. But there was outrage from human rights activists and public security specialists as the scale of the carnage became clear. “It’s extermination – there’s no other way to describe it,” said Pedro Paulo Santos Silva, a researcher from Rio’s Centre for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship. “Irrespective of whether they were ‘traffickers’ or residents, these are lives, these are bodies – somebody’s child, somebody’s brother,” Santos Silva added.

Source: The Guardian May 06, 2021 17:29 UTC