Commission holds hearing on police operations in Rio de Janeiro

Session is scheduled for 7pm this Wednesday, Brasília time

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will hold, this Wednesday (11), a hearing on police operations in Rio de Janeiro, with emphasis on Operation Containment.

Considered the most lethal in the state’s history, the incursion against the Comando Vermelho in the Penha and Alemão Complexes, in the north of the capital of Rio de Janeiro, left 122 people dead in October last year.

The hearing will be in Guatemala City, the country’s capital, during the commission’s 195th Regular Session. The session is scheduled for 7pm, Brasília time, and will be broadcast on the CIDH YouTube Channel.

The IACHR is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Americas. Headquartered in Washington DC, in the United States, the OAS is made up of 35 member countries, including Brazil.

The body’s objective with the hearing is to receive information and issue recommendations aimed at ensuring respect for human rights.

Report

Weeks after the operation, the IACHR visited Brazil to investigate possible abuses and violations of human rights. After the visit, 26 civil society organizations filed a request for a hearing, with the aim of ensuring direct monitoring by the body on the issues monitored throughout the visit.

Last week, the IACHR published a report on what was discovered during the visit to Brazil. For the commission, the operation did not bring positive results for public safety.

“Far from structurally weakening organized crime, the intervention deepened community suffering, reinforced institutional distrust and raised the historical pattern of state violence to a new level of severity”, says one of the excerpts from the report.

The request from human rights organizations to hold the hearing denounces the absence of independent expertise and autonomous investigations.

In addition, attempts to criminalize victims’ families, residents, human rights defenders and communicators who were involved in reporting the cases are also mentioned, bringing to light a “scenario of structural compromise of access to justice”.

For the organizations, the operation shows that the Brazilian State has been failing to comply with determinations already established by the Federal Supreme Court within the scope of ADPF nº 635 – known as the ADPF of Favelas, which defines several measures to combat police lethality during Military Police operations against organized crime in the communities of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil has also been condemned by the Court in the cases of the massacres in Acari (1990) and Nova Brasília (1994 and 1995), both in the north of Rio de Janeiro.

Operation Containment

Operation Containment, promoted by the Civil and Military police of Rio de Janeiro, left at least 122 people dead ─ including five police officers. In total, 113 arrests were made, 33 of which were people from other states. The seizures totaled 118 weapons and 1 ton of drugs.

The state government considered the operation “a success” and stated that the people killed reacted violently and threatened the lives of the police officers. According to state authorities, those who surrendered were arrested and “the only victims were the five police officers killed in the confrontation”.

The objective of the operation was to contain the advance of the Comando Vermelho faction and execute 180 search and seizure warrants and 100 arrest warrants, 30 of which were issued by the Pará Court.

The operation had a force of 2,500 police officers and is the largest and most lethal carried out in the state in the last 15 years. The clashes and retaliatory actions by criminals generated panic throughout the city, with intense shooting, closing the main roads, schools, businesses and health centers.

Residents of the region, relatives of the dead and organizations denounce the operation as a “slaughter”. Corpses collected by residents of the forests surrounding the region were found with their throats cut and showing signs of execution.

Originally published by Agência Brasil on 03/11/2026

Editing: Vinicius Lisboa