The United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, has called for an immediate investigation into the police raid in Rio de Janeiro, which left over 130 victims, while the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies has sent a formal request to consider the arrest of the Bolsonarist governor, Cláudio Castro (PL), who promoted the action.
The right-wing exponent has already been called to account for the operation, which he celebrated as a success by the Supreme Court judge, Alexandre de Morais, while on Tuesday he will be judged for an episode of alleged corruption, which dates back to 2022 and which could cost him his mandate, opening up the possibility of early elections. The eyes of the world remain focused on the Carioca city, still in shock from Tuesday’s carnage.
And while the funerals of the victims are being celebrated, controversies rage and new background stories emerge. In particular, the spotlight was turned on a dossier sent to Donald Trump’s administration.
A document that the Rio state government delivered directly to the United States consulate, without informing Lula’s executive. The report, prepared by the Intelligence area of the Public Security secretariat of Guanabara Palace, indicates the Vermelho Command as a terrorist organization with ramifications and activities in the United States, describing in detail its expansion in North America, and identifying Penha and Alemao as its bastions.
The initiative – it was explained by Castro’s allies – is a move to meet the US Republican administration, which intends to include the Vermelho Command in the terrorist black list as has already happened with the Venezuelans of the Tren de Aragua and the Soles Cartel against which the occupant of the White House is promoting a naval bombing campaign, with summary executions of alleged drug traffickers.
On the other hand – as noted by the New York Times – many in Brazil saw Castro’s show of strength as an attempt to gain political consensus in view of the 2026 elections, considering that the issue of security in the country remains at the top of all priorities in the polls. It was not lost on us that the governor, in boasting of having dealt a blow to narco-terrorism, used the same rhetoric as Trump.
And it was also noted that the extreme violence of the police operation recalls a post by Flavio Bolsonaro last October, when the son of the former right-wing president had invited the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegsteh, to attack the narcos’ boats in the Guanabara Bay in Rio. Just like what happens off the coast of Venezuela. Meanwhile, Lula’s allies are unanimous in defining the carnage as an electoral ploy.
«A show mounted on the deaths and tears of hundreds of mothers», according to the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) Edinho Silva. An «electoral massacre, politically planned», for the president of Embratur, Marcelo Freixo. While the Minister of Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, underlines “the surprise at the lack of notice to the federal government”.
But the conservative squads are determined to lock down Castro. A delegation of governors has arrived in the city, led by the head of the state of Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello (Pl), while the liberal parliamentarians exploit the 2022 electoral campaign, when Lula had arrived for a rally at the Alemao Complex in a “gesture of reconciliation with the suburbs”, insinuating contiguity with the Vermelho Command.