(Adnkronos) – The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called for unity to combat organized crime, in his first public statement on the police operation in two favela areas in the north of Rio de Janeiro, which caused more than 120 deaths. “We cannot accept that organized crime continues to destroy families, oppress neighbors, and spread drugs and violence in cities,” he wrote on X, after meeting with his cabinet at the Alvorada Palace to discuss what happened on Tuesday in the Penha and Alemao complexes.
Lula announced that he had instructed the Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, and the Secretary-General of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, to travel to Rio de Janeiro to meet with the state governor, Cláudio Castro. He also emphasized the need to “work in a coordinated manner” to “strike at the backbone” of crime without endangering police officers and civilians, and recalled that the government has already presented a security law reform aimed at the “joint action” of all police forces. The security reform mentioned by Lula has been under consideration by Congress since April, but is in an intermediate phase of its process due to a lack of consensus among parliamentary forces. Among other things, the norm proposes to integrate the various police forces under the command of the federal government.
According to the latest balance from the Rio de Janeiro government, 121 people, including four police officers, died during Tuesday’s operation, considered the deadliest in the state’s history, a figure slightly lower than those reported in recent hours, which spoke of 138 victims.
