The working people from Jacarezinho favela, in the Northern Zone of Rio de Janeiro, faced 11 consecutive days of siege and invasion of the repressive apparatus of the old State. The successive operations of the Civil and Military Police, which on August 21 were supported by the Armed Forces, resulted in seven people killed, at least eight injuries, numerous violations, suspension of essential services such as water, energy, and the interdiction of 15 schools in the region.

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The residents protested against the barbaric siege and attack on the community, which takes place amid the policy of genocide against the people. It is part of the reactionary civil war unleashed by the ruling classes.

The Civil and Military police and the National Force, under the pretext of “combating organized crime”, occupied Jacarezinho for the first time on August 11, when an inspector from the Coordination of Special Resources (Core), Bruno Guimarães Buhler, known as Xingu, 36, was killed in circumstances not yet clear.

Then, uninterrupted police troops incursions were deployed against the working masses of the community. On the penultimate day of the siege, the old State launched a mega-operation, which included the use of armored vehicles and the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Police terror besieged the residents in their own homes. They were forced to stockpile food and medicine over the course of the 11 days, in addition to living with the restriction of essential services such as water, light, transportation and garbage collection. The 400 tons of accumulated garbage, a source of health risk for residents, were only removed on August 21 by Comlurb.

SEVEN MURDERS AND PROTESTS

On August 15, a resident identified as Sebastião Sabino da Silva, Tião, 46, was murdered during a Civil Police raid, which had the help of “caveirões”, the notorious armored vehicles of the repression forces. The resident Ana Carolina Pereira dos Santos, 30, was also shot on her face and sent to the General Hospital of Bonsucesso.

Tiao sold fruits and vegetables at the time he was hit by three shots by police officers. According to AND’s survey, the bullets came from the Civil Police helicopter that flew over the community.

“The shot that hit Seu Tião in the chest went from top to bottom and he burst him open,” said a resident who, for security reasons, chose not to reveal the name.

The burial of Sebastião Sabino da Silva was held in the cemetery of Caju, North Zone of the city, on August 17. During the ceremony, her daughter, Raquel Sabino, refuted the hypothesis of “stray bullet”, as propagated by the communication monopoly, and stated that the policeman deliberately aimed at her father.

She reported that the police prevented her father from being rescued, which made him lose a lot of blood. According to his daughter, the vendor stayed more than an hour lying on the ground until the locals managed to take him out of the community.

On the same night of Tião’s death, residents held a demonstration against police operations and blocked a segment of Dom Hélder Câmara Avenue. After crossing sections of the road, the protest was interrupted by tear gas as it passed in front of the Cidade da Polícia(Police City), near Jacarezinho. The residents continued to protest inside the community and the AND report registered exclusively the cries of revolt against the extermination of the poor and black people.

On August 20, dozens of people organized in Manguinhos a demonstration that stopped Leopoldo Bulhões Street and passed through streets and alleys of the community also located in the North Zone. The protest, which was part of the fifth edition of the Walk of Peace, called for an end to the aggression to the people of Jacarezinho.

First victim of the old state, ‘mototaxi’ driver André Luis Medeiros, 36, wounded in the leg by three shots and taken to the Souza Aguiar Municipal Hospital on August 11, died five days later.

At the “Stuba” mototaxi stop, where Andre worked, the mood among his colleagues was one of consternation and revolt. They told AND details of when the motorcycle was shot for the first time. “The caveirão came in and shot André from there,” says a mototaxi driver pointing to Jacarezinho’s entrance.

Also on August 11, a 13-year-old boy identified as Yan Santos Fênix Ferreira was shot in the pelvis and taken to the General Hospital of Bonsucesso. Until the closure of this edition, Yan was in recovering. Moisés Martins Alves, with a shoulder injury, has a stable health picture.

The violence perpetrated by the old State disrupts the daily life of Jacarezinho residents for more than a week. A man who identified himself to AND report as Carlinhos said he had never witnessed such violence against the community population and reported the criminal siege that affected most of the 40,000 residents of the favela.

“If I’m at home, I can not go out on the street, and if I’m on the street, I have to stay outside the favela until the shooting ends. Not only me, but all the locals”, explained the clothing vendor.

ARMED FORCES ACT IN THE MASSACRE TO THE PEOPLE

Continuing the siege and violence, the repression forces of the old State invaded, besides Jacarezinho, five other favelas in the Northern Zone of Rio on August 21 – Complexo do Alemão, Bandeira 2, Parque do Arará, Mandela and Manguinhos. The attacks also occurred in another part of the same region, the condominium Morar Carioca. Troops and policemen left the City of Police, located near the favela Jacarezinho, around 5:30.

The mobilized apparatus consisted of approximately 5,500 agents of the Civil and Military Police, the Armed Forces, the Federal Police (PF), the Federal Highway Police (PRF), the National Force, and the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN). who used three war armored vehicles and 41 vehicles. It was not the first time that the Armed Forces operated in Rio in the month of August. On the 5th, the Lins Complex was also targeted by an odious military operation.

Residents of Jacarezinho had their houses invaded early in the morning. With the blockade carried out by Army, Navy and Air Force men throughout the community, the workers were only able to get out on foot. On the way to work, several people, including children, were arbitrarily frisked, with cell phones, bags and backpacks searched by agents of the old state.

In relation to the Ponte Jornalismo, a resident of Manguinhos stated that he was subject of racism by the military. “A sergeant frisked me, calling me a monkey,” he said.

On August 25, residents exposed the following banner in the main entrance of the favela: “After the wind calms down, it is easy to guide the boat, Jacarezinho says: outside opportunistic politicians!”, Was Jacarezinho’s message to politicians who were there after the end of police violence.

GENOCIDE IN THE FAVELAS IS WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE

The reactionary civil war managed by the ruling classes against the people develops amid the deep crisis that pushes the country into barbarism in an escalation of violence in the countryside and in the city.

In the countryside, this reactionary warfare carried out by the police forces of the old state and goons working for the latifundio is fighting against peasants, indigenous peoples and quilombolas. Just look at the Pau D’Arco and Colniza slaughters, the Operation “Paz no Campo (Peace in the Countryside)” and the mega-operations of “environmental agencies” in Northern Minas and Rondônia.

In cities and suburbs, this war against the people occurs through incursions and genocidal military operations in the favelas. The war deepens with the use of federal troops and the military intervention of the Armed Forces. In a calamitous situation affecting mainly the poor people thrown into unemployment and the lack of basic public services, the old state unleashes its repressive apparatus to bathe the impoverished masses in blood.

As the Minister of Defense Raul Jungmann made clear in an interview on the situation in Rio de Janeiro on July 27, “Let’s be clear: we’re going to be in a kind of war.”

Thus, the reactionary Armed Forces sent by the gangster Temer provides cover for the genocidal action of the civilian and military police forces of the bandit Pezão. The mega-operation of the siege against the people of Jacarezinho stands out in this context.

But the ruling classes are wrong into thinking that they will defeat the mass struggle with repression, for, as it is expressed in the universal law “where there is repression, there is resistance.” If in the favelas the people have been rising in diffuse, frequent and increasingly conscious protests against this genocide policy of the deep masses of our people, in the countryside, the peasant and indigenous masses advance accordingly under the cry of ‘Take all lands of the latifundio ‘, showing the way of the organization and that only a Democratic Revolution can save the country from barbarism.