A few days after the announcement claiming the participation of the so-called “Militias“ in the murder of Marielle Franco, the civil police invaded a pagode show promoted by the militia in Santa Cruz, metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, killing 4 security and arresting 159 people.
The action was coordinated by 3 different levels of the civil police, including special forces.
They invaded the event, shooting and killing the 4 security of the event. Everyone who was inside were impeded from leaving the area, arrested and brought to Bangu Prison Complex. Raul Jungmann, the Public Security Minister, in the attempt to promote the action, declared it was a hard blow against the Militia and everyone who was arrested had involvement with the organized crime.
Soon the relatives of the people arrested began to appear to prove the people had no involvement with the militia, considering the event was open, announced in radios and tickets were sold for it.
People reported they were subject to intimidation and humiliation. A woman, who were invited by the band, reported her husband was kicked and arrested. The phone technician Edilson Pereira, 51, was celebrating the birthday of a neighbor in the occasion and said the police took his nephew who is deaf. The most notable case was the arrest of Renato, a mental disabled 23 years old man, who works in a market.
The judge Eduardo Marques Hablitschek had determined the release of 137 of the people arrested in the occasion by request of the Public Prosecution, but only at 10pm of the next day from the prison complex, Renato was the last to be released.
This action of the civil police is part of the contradictions between the local police mafias (militias) and the military occupation who collude for the control of the areas in Rio de Janeiro and the general campaign of genocide and terror against the poor peoples of Brazil. The old state also shows its crisis by not being able to unify its repression apparatuses and the people‘s anger grows every day.
Relatives protesting against the arbitrary arrests.
