Police massacre in Brazil reignites debate on how to combat organized crime in Latin America

The police operation that left an unprecedented trail of death in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday (121, according to the latest official count) is already the subject of furious political debate, even though the fallen officers have only just been buried and many mothers in the favelas are still anxiously waiting to locate or identify their sons. Public safety has thus become a key issue in the lead-up to Brazil’s presidential elections in a year’s time. But the repercussions of the massacre — one of the worst perpetrated by security forces in Latin America — transcend borders and has reignited the debate on how to effectively combat organized crime in the most violent region on the planet.

The duel between supporters of a hardline approach with massive raids and defenders of medium-term strategies more focused on intelligence gathering to economically strangle the powerful groups that arm themselves with drug money is back at the center of the Latin American political debate, whether in Brazil, Mexico, or Chile. And, specifically, two neighboring countries — Argentina and Paraguay — have reinforced their borders to prevent the passage of fugitives.

“Rio is alone in this war,” declared Rio de Janeiro Governor Cláudio Castro, a Jair Bolsonaro ally, at a press conference on Tuesday, while the operation was still underway. This “is a war that has nothing to do with urban security,” he added, “but is fueled by the weapons of international drug trafficking.” He criticized the lack of support from the federal government. He also hinted that he might ask for help from the Armed Forces and used the magic phrase of recent weeks: “They are narco-terrorists.”

Castro echoed the rhetoric with which U.S. President Donald Trump has promoted his controversial policy of extrajudicial military strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats. Since the Republican returned to power, the U.S. administration has been pushing to designate major Latin American drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

In response to Castro’s criticism, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was returning from a trip to Asia when the massacre occurred, immediately sprang into action. There is no longer any doubt that public safety will be the central issue of the 2026 election campaign, and Lula has just announced his intention to seek a fourth term. Upon landing, he convened his team and announced the creation of a coordination commission with the Rio de Janeiro state government.

The president sent two of his ministers to Rio on Thursday to closely accompany the residents of the favelas that were the epicenter of the shootings and to listen to the demands of the families who lost loved ones.

While the governor considers the police operation “a success,” marred only by the deaths of the four security officers, the Minister of Human Rights, Macaé Evaristo, declared after visiting those affected that the operation “was a failure, a tragedy, an unspeakable horror.” According to the minister, “if we want to combat organized crime, we have to start at the top,” with those in charge.

As an example of its approach to combating organized crime, the federal government has recently contrasted the bloody operation in Rio with one carried out in São Paulo in August. While this week’s operation targeted Comando Vermelho (CV), a criminal group that trafficks drugs and weapons from Rio de Janeiro, the operation months earlier targeted the only Brazilian mafia that surpasses it in power: the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), a brotherhood of criminals that rewards innovation within its ranks. The Federal Police, acting on intelligence from the Ministry of Finance and with the collaboration of São Paulo authorities, dealt a decisive blow to the PCC’s financial apparatus. Without firing a shot, they dismantled a network of investment funds that laundered money for the PCC.

Ignacio Cano, a researcher at the Violence Analysis Laboratory of the State University of Rio de Janeiro, believes that when the governor authorized an operation of this nature and magnitude against the Comando Vermelho in its stronghold, “he intended to create a political event; it was a conscious gamble. He knew that [the CV members] would paralyze the city in response, that it would generate enormous national visibility, and that he would then present himself as the great champion against organized crime.” With this, Castro has just entered the 2026 presidential campaign, in which the right wing, with Bolsonaro imprisoned and barred from holding office, has yet to choose a candidate.

Rio de Janeiro activist Eliane Sousa Silva, director of Redes da Maré, an NGO working in the favela of the same name, criticizes the state government for continuing violent raids in the favelas and ignoring the limits imposed by the Supreme Court, which in April mandated body cameras for police officers and demanded the creation of a plan to reduce police lethality. This operation “is more of the same; the scale changes, but we don’t see any measures to address the problem strategically.”

Latin America is the deadliest region on the planet, with a homicide rate four times the global average. For this reason, public safety is a major and daily concern for its inhabitants and, consequently, for politicians. A study co-directed by Cano — one of the few to evaluate the wide range of measures implemented in recent decades against violence in the region — has reached striking conclusions. Deploying the army to the streets or eliminating the leaders of armed groups can be counterproductive and increase violence. Limiting gun ownership and alcohol sales stand out among the most effective measures.

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