Massive police raid in Rio De Janeiro leaves at least 120 people dead

 

Corpses line the streets in the aftermath of the raid. Reuters. 

A massive police raid in Rio De Janeiro has left at least 120 people dead. Reuters. The raid targeted the Comando Vermelho cartel and was planned over two months. The operation was more of a battle than a police action with the gang members being herded into a hillside before being attacked. The total casualties are in dispute with police saying 120 people died in the battle while local public defenders say the toll is 132. There are reports that some of the gang members were tortured and/or executed. Brazil has been criticized for the behavior of their police forces before and will likely draw dramatically more in the wake of this battle. 

My Comment:

I've got mixed feelings about this. I have zero sympathy for these gangsters. From what I understand, the Comando Vermelho cartel (Red Command), are a major cocaine cartel. As a Cartel, they do normal cartel things, like murder, kidnapping, extortion and generally rule the areas they control with an iron fist. Well, they used to, this will be a huge blow to them. Not only did they lose more than 100 men to violence, they also had another 100 arrested by police. This will be a huge blow for them and may break their back in Rio De Janeiro. 

But this raid barely qualifies as a raid. Indeed, this is a battle, the police funneled the gangsters into a hillside kill zone in a classic ambush. They had no real chance to win this battle and the fact that only 4 police were killed (assuming reports are accurate) at a cost of more 100 of their own means this battle was more of a rout. 

Aggressive actions against drug cartels are nothing new. The Mexican Drug war is a good example, though most of the fighting was between drug cartels, the government and police battled the Cartels as well. And there is, of course, Americas new operations against drug smugglers at sea. The fact that police were using military tactics aren't super new globally. 

What is new is the fact that the police didn't seem to act any better than the gang they were targeting. If the reports of people being tortured or executed are true then this wasn't even a battle, it was a massacre. Though these people were scumbags, executing defenseless prisoners is a serious crime. And torture is also entirely unacceptable. 

It's also just stupid. If criminals know that they are going to be executed and tortured and not allowed to surrender, why surrender? Much better to keep fighting to the death in that case, which means more deaths on both sides. There's a reason why perfidy is a war crime after all. 

It's also disturbing that this is happening under Lula. President Lula is a far left lunatic who came into power the same way Joe Biden did, a contested election that appeared to be fraudulent. He used legitimate protests against a poorly run election as an excuse to jail his political opponent, former president Jair Bolsonaro. Though Lula wasn't involved in this raid, as it was a local governor that ordered the operation from Bolsonaro's party, it does make me concerned that he will be inspired by this raid. 

So could this be the start of something bigger? It's very possible. I don't know how much of the Red Command is left but I am guessing they will want revenge. It could end up being a small scale war. And there is no reason to believe that this will be the only raid targeting the cartels...