UN, AMNESTY INT’L FURIOUS OVER POLICE KILLINGS IN RIO DE JANEIRO

The killing of at least 25 people in a police operation in Rio de Janeiro has elicited shock and outrage from leaders and the United Nations (UN) and Amnesty International on Friday, while the police defended their actions, Bill Heaney and Martina Farmbauer reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao said the slain suspects were "all bandits," according to media reports. Further details emerged about the operation on Thursday in the Jacarezinho neighborhood.

There had been violent clashes between suspected drug gang members and police in the favela, with the sound of shooting and explosions heard since the early hours of the morning.

Gunmen could be seen trying to escape across rooftops in images shown on Brazilian television. As criticism mounted over the bloodshed, the police defended their actions.

"They were all drug traffickers or criminals who tried to take the lives of our police officers, and there was no other alternative," officer Felipe Curi told a press conference.

Police officer Rodrigo Oliveira said that "if anyone is talking about an execution in this operation, it was the moment the policeman was killed with a shot to the head." The officer who died was killed as he tried to remove a barricade, he said. The Jacarezinho favela is an area known as one of the bases of the Comando Vermelho (Red Command).

The powerful criminal group fights with other gangs to control the drugs and protection business in poorer neighborhoods.

"Unfortunately, these drug gangs are real narco-guerrillas, they have control over certain areas and are a problem for the city of Rio de Janeiro," Mourao said.

"The police moved in to execute arrest warrants related to the exploitation of minors for drug trafficking." He said a policeman had been shot in the head by a bandit at the entrance. "It's as though we were fighting in an enemy country."

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