Brazil military's growing role in crime crackdown fuels fears among poor

Brazil military's growing role in crime crackdown fuels fears among poor
Dom Phillips in São Gonçalo

@domphillips
Tue 27 Feb 2018 03.01 EST

. . .

Police with automatic rifles slung around their necks stood behind an armoured car near the entrance of the Salgueiro favela, a half-hour drive from Rio across the Guanabara Bay.

Nearby, Joelma Milanes, 38, cried as she recalled the night last November when she and her husband found her son Márcio Sabino, 21, lying dead with several others after a police and army operation.

The army told the Guardian its special forces battalion – Brazil’s equivalent of the US navy Seals – participated in the operation which left seven dead, but denied they fired the shots.

“The people who should be protecting us are killing us,” Milanes said. “They do what they want. There won’t be justice.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/27/brazil-military-police-crime-rio-de-janeiro-favelas