A-Infos (en) Brazil, CAB: MASSACRE IN RIO DE JANEIRO: THE STATE IS THE TRUE TERRORIST! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, we witnessed a massacre perpetrated by the 
government of the State of Rio de Janeiro through a mega police 
operation in the Alemão and Penha complexes in the city's North Zone. 
The massacre, which has already claimed at least 130 lives and left 
dozens missing, was the deadliest police action ever recorded in the 
history of Rio de Janeiro. This is yet another bloody episode of state 
terrorism and its systematic genocidal policy against the poor, black, 
and marginalized population!

This current mega-operation is not the first to promise to "regain state 
control" in Rio's favelas; it is a continuation of the nefarious public 
security policy implemented in the state of Rio de Janeiro in recent 
decades. In 2010, the failed policy of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) 
promoted by the Dilma-Lula-Cabral governments promised to "end drug 
trafficking," but in practice strengthened militia control over the 
territories. In 2018, Michel Temer's Federal Intervention decreed that 
public security in the State of Rio de Janeiro would be under the 
command of the Brazilian army, specifically General Walter Braga Neto, 
promising to solve the "crisis" in public security. What followed were 
the murders of residents by military forces and the violation of basic 
human rights, under the pretext of a "war on drugs."

Governor Cláudio Castro, meanwhile, is responsible for four of the five 
deadliest operations in Rio de Janeiro's history: Jacarezinho (2021, 28 
dead), Complexo da Penha (2022, 23 dead), Complexo do Alemão (2022, 16 
dead), and Complexos da Penha and Alemão (2025, 120 dead). The security 
policy of Governor Cláudio Castro (PL) is the same as that of his 
predecessor in the government of Rio de Janeiro, Wilson Witzel (PSC), 
who, in addition to being known for having suffered impeachment for 
corruption, coined the phrase: "The police will aim at the head and... 
fire." Therefore, the number exceeding 120 deaths is not "collateral 
damage," it is the materialization of the doctrine that sees the poor 
population as an enemy to be eliminated.

FROM THE GAZA STRIP TO RIO DE JANEIRO, THE COLONIAL WAR MACHINE

The public security budget of the state of Rio de Janeiro reaches R$ 19 
billion per year (the second largest spending area), and 61% of this 
budget is exclusively allocated to visible policing. This funding 
sustains the war machine that has the genocidal state of "Israel" as its 
main supplier, responsible for 17% of the state's weapons. The same 
arsenal and colonial warfare technologies tested in Gaza are imported 
and applied in Rio de Janeiro's favelas: We are witnessing the arrival 
of drones and now war helicopters like the "Black Hawk," an aircraft 
armed with missiles and machine guns capable of firing a thousand rounds 
per minute. In "Brazilian Gaza," the State replicates the logic of 
colonial warfare and mass extermination practiced by "Israel" against 
the Palestinian people.

As a way to justify the massacre, the far right highlights the number of 
weapons seized in the operation, which so far totals 93 rifles. It is 
important to remember that not long ago, in 2019, 117 NEW rifles were 
seized in Barra da Tijuca, in the apartment of Alexandre de Souza, a 
childhood friend of the militia member Ronnie Lessa, assassin of 
Marielle Franco and neighbor of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The 
same apparatus that murders dozens to seize 93 rifles in the favela acts 
"discreetly" to seize 117 new rifles in an upper-class neighborhood.

Among the justifications supporting this operation, it is cited that 
Comando Vermelho was promoting a "violent expansion in 
militia-controlled areas." This concern illustrates that the State 
adopts different approaches for different criminal factions, shifting 
the balance of their disputes over retail points and benefiting sectors 
more aligned with paramilitary police forces.

"NARCOTERRORISM" AS A CAMPAIGN PLATFORM: WHOSE BODIES DANCE SO THAT THE 
CELEBRATION OF DEMOCRACY CAN HAPPEN?

Aligned with the reactionary winds of international politics, Cláudio 
Castro echoes the imperialist rhetoric of Donald Trump, who authorized 
the bombing of boats in Latin America under the accusation of 
"narcoterrorism," seeking to legitimize the summary execution of 
civilians without any kind of trial. Castro's objective with this action 
is clearly to promote penal populism in order to create a campaign 
platform for 2026, using the lives lost as electoral fuel and 
demonstrating once again that here genocide is a power project. Those at 
the top call the killing of those who don't dance at their party democracy!

The rhetoric of "narcoterrorism," which paints the image of an internal 
enemy-black, poor, and from the favelas-is part of the electoral 
theater. But it's important to say that the seizure of a few kilos of 
drugs and a massacre against alleged soldiers of a faction barely 
scratch the surface of the structure of true organized crime, which is 
actually managed by big financial capital from luxurious penthouses. 
Research indicates that organized crime has made R$ 350 billion in the 
last three years in Brazil. In recent months, investigations have 
revealed billions of reais moved in the formal market (gas stations, 
beverage sales, real estate market, fintechs, among others). This is not 
about an "infiltration" of crime into the formal economy, but about 
active investments by the financial market, which seeks to profit from 
the billion-dollar economy of illicit markets without getting its hands 
dirty. We do not believe for a moment that drug trafficking and militias 
would operate as they do without the agency and financing of the State 
and the market, which profit politically and financially from their 
existence.

THE STATE IS THE TERRORIST!

It is even more alarming that the governor makes a speech attempting to 
classify criminal factions as terrorist groups, while we know that THE 
STATE IS THE TERRORIST! Far from being exceptions, such murders 
exemplify the rule of police actions against the black and poor 
population of the country. This is not about the policies of one 
government or another, but rather an intrinsic characteristic of the 
capitalist-statist system in promoting the genocide of black people. It 
is impossible to speak of state terrorism without considering its racial 
character - the numbers demonstrate that the vast majority of people 
murdered by the police are black - and the police institution in Brazil 
emerges precisely as a tool of the State for the control and 
extermination of black people. The terrorist is the State that invades 
homes, executes civilians, destroys public property, and offers death as 
public policy. The terrorist is the financial market that profits from 
the blood spilled in the peripheries!

The operation in Rio de Janeiro is a direct result of the State's action 
in the ADPF of the Favelas. The favelas lost, and the State won. The 
Supreme Federal Court (STF) has a responsibility in this process, as 
does the governor. The state government itself even published on social 
media that "the operation is being carried out in compliance with the 
requirements of ADPF 635". The governor celebrated as if it were a great 
success, in the face of more than 120 bodies of people brutally murdered 
without the right to a trial, residents shot, schools closed, traffic 
disrupted, and families in panic. This reflects a policy that devours 
the public budget and allocates its resources to finance the genocide of 
the Black and marginalized population.

It is true that there are no simple solutions to public safety, as 
politicians from both the right and the institutional left claim. The 
"feeling of insecurity" among the elites and middle sectors is nothing 
more than the fear of losing their possessions or their lives in the 
barbarity produced by the capitalist system itself. However, the 
statistics leave no doubt about who the true victims of this system are: 
in 2024, 76% of the 44,000 homicide victims in Brazil were Black. 
Disguised as a war on drugs, this genocidal policy is actually a war on 
the poor, which victimizes Black and marginalized youth and keeps the 
population of these communities under constant threat.

Massacres like the one we experienced in Rio The events of January 
demonstrate the failure of state institutions to guarantee the minimum 
they themselves promise. As long as the marginalized population 
continues without decent housing, health, education, and leisure, the 
cycle of violence will continue to perpetuate itself. As long as we do 
not advance the decriminalization of drugs, billions will continue to go 
into the pockets of businessmen and politicians linked to drug 
trafficking. It is urgent that the debate in popular movements about the 
end of the military police advances to demand the end of all police 
forces, which are the armed arm of the powerful to torture, imprison, 
and kill us. The true answer is not limited to combating violence, but 
to building another societal project. Only the construction of a strong 
people is capable of dismantling this death machine. The only possible 
response to state terror is the popular organization of communities in 
self-defense!

For an end to the genocide of Black people!

For an end to the police!

For a dignified and safe life for the slums and favelas!

https://cabanarquista.com.br/chacina-no-rio-de-janeiro-o-estado-e-o-verdadeiro-terrorista/
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