Lula calls ministers to discuss police raid on Rio favela
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has ordered Justice and Public Security Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, Human Rights and Citizenship Minister Macaé Evaristo, and Racial Equality Minister Anielle Franco to travel to Rio de Janeiro for a meeting with Governor Claudio Castro on Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 29).
The agenda for the meeting is Operation Contenção (“Containment”), which took place in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday (28) and resulted in a conflict between state security forces and organized crime. The raid resulted in more than 130 deaths.
The trip to Rio was confirmed by Minister Lewandowski himself after a meeting with the president at the Alvorada presidential residence. The meeting lasted about three hours and was also attended by other senior officials.
Lewandowski will offer the governor of Rio de Janeiro criminal experts and medical examiners from the Federal Police and the National Force to help identify the bodies.
The crackdown, which took place in the Complexo do Alemão and Complexo da Penha favelas in the state capital, left more than 130 dead, but the final number of bodies – many still being removed from the forest area by residents of these communities– has not yet been reached.
At a press conference this morning, Governor Claudio Castro called the operation “a success” and only expressed grief over the deaths of four police officers during the operation.
