'Devastated' Ferocious police favela raid sparks mass protest

Thousands of protesters have gathered in the Rio favela that last week suffered the deadliest police operation in Brazilian history to demand an inquiry into the killings and an end to security policies that have turned working-class neighbourhoods into “war zones”.

- Tom Phillips RIO DE JANEIRO

At least 121 people, including four police officers, were killed on 28 October during a police assault on the Complexo da Penha and the Complexo do Alemão, two large tapestries of favelas in north Rio. The operation made global headlines when scores of mutilated bodies were dumped at the entrance to one of the favelas.

Last Friday, white-clad demonstrators gathered on Vila Cruzeiro’s football pitch to condemn the violence and demand the removal of Rio’s right-wing governor, Cláudio Castro, who ordered the offensive. One woman wore Brazil’s green and yellow flag over her shoulders, stained with red paint.

“We don’t want a Rio de Janeiro of blood. We have to stop this blood that is being spilled in Rio de Janeiro,” protester Raimunda Leone, who lives in a nearby community called Chapadão, told the favela news agency Voz das Comunidades. “No mother wants to see her son splayed out on the ground, riddled with bullets.”

As the group proceeded through the streets singing and chanting, its leaders raised a banner that read: “Favela Lives Matter.”