Operation Contenção (Containment Operation) is the name of what has been defined as lanti-narcotics operation largest and bloodiest in the history of Brazil: last October 29th 2,500 agents of the special police forces, with 32 vehicles armored And 12 demolition vehiclesthey blocked access to the favelas of the neighborhoods Alemão and Penha Of Rio de Janeiro for an operation against the Vermelho Commandthe second largest criminal group in Brazil.
The budget was 138 dead including 4 policemen, with use of bomb dronesbursts of 200 bullets per minute and bodies found with gunshots to the back of the head. The violence used, and reported by many inhabitants of the areas involved, has been compared to that of a war scenario, receiving harsh criticism from theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and by other international organizations such as Human Rights Watch.
Police operation in the neighborhood of Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, in 2010. Source: Agência Brasil via Wikimedia Commons
Maxi anti-narcos operation in Rio de Janeiro
The raid was made in a densely populated area – approx 280,000 people – and led to the arrest of 81 peopleal seizure of 90 weapons – including war rifles – and to the confiscation of 200 kilos of drugs. The objective was precisely to contain and counter the expansion of the Vermelho Command, a criminal group of more than 30,000 members dedicated to arms and drug traffickingwhich has been increasing its presence in Rio de Janeiro for more than a year, becoming the second most powerful of Brazil after First Capital Command (PCC), of Sao Paulo. Following the operation, the Vermelho Command seized around 70 buses to block roads in the north and south-east of Rio de Janeiro, using them as barricades and paralyzing part of the city. Schools, universities and health services have been suspended, causing serious inconvenience for the population.
Operation Containment also sparked harsh controversies against the governor of Rio de Janeiro Claudio Castromember of the Liberal Party (PL) which also includes the ex-president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro. The violence used in the operation was motivated by the governor of Rio de Janeiro forabsence of support by the federal government of Ignacio Lula da Silvawho would have denied, according to Castro, resources from the Ministry of Defense. The Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski denied these statements, recalling that the Brazilian Constitution assigns the responsibility ofpublic order. The intervention of the federal police forces can only be permitted with a extraordinary decreewhich must be promulgated by the President and ratified by Parliament.
The anti-narcos raids marked a watershed both for the high number of deaths and the violence used, and for the use of new armaments by narcos, such as the use of drones to launch grenades against special teams, through the action of a mechanical or electric detonator which allows you to release the explosive while keeping the drone in flight, so as to allow it to move away without exposing itself to risk.
The crime rate in Brazil and the causes of drug trafficking in Rio
Brazil has a crime rate among the highest in the world – only recorded in 2024 38,772 murders – and is considered among the most dangerous Latin American countries, the fifth in Latin America after Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana and Colombia. The rate of intentional homicide in 2023 was 19.28 per 100,000 inhabitants, a decrease from 20.08 in 2022 and 31.16 in 2017.
Drug and weapons trafficking remains one of the main activities of gangs drug traffickers but in recent years the latter have expanded their criminal activities, starting to also control sectors such as transport, polling stations and civil construction.
The drug trade a Rio de Janeiro it changed especially starting in the 1980s, with the entry of cocaine into the market. The Vermelho Commandinvolved in the clashes of 29 October, was born shortly before, in 1969in the Cândido Mendes prison, in Ilha Grande, from the union between criminal gangs and political prisoners of the dictatorship who only later extended their criminal activities outside prison, differentiating them and also including bank robberies, drug trafficking, kidnappings and extortion.
Currently the narcos in Brazil, in addition to controlling the territories of the favelas, have begun to infiltrate the police forces and judiciarywith a rate of corruption constantly growing, leveraging crucial economic and social problems in the country, such asextreme poverty, inequality and corruption. TO Rio de Janeiro the situation is particularly complex and dangerous: in the last five years alone the police have killed 1,886 people in firefights. The population, especially the favelaslives in extreme conditions violence, poverty and lack of schooling, which becomes fertile ground for criminal organizations and which makes residents often become victims of both criminal and police violence.
