Brazil:
War Against the Poor

Nov 10, 2025

This article is translated from the November 7 issue, #2988 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.

Early on October 28, nearly 2,500 police officers with armored vehicles and helicopters invaded the Rio de Janeiro outskirts of Penha and Alemão, allegedly to neutralize the Red Commando (“Comando Vermelho” in Portuguese) and “secure the city.” The state’s far-right governor was quick to boast about the “success” of the operation, although none of the gang leaders targeted, like Edgar Alves Andrade, were captured.

Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world, has no real housing policy. Millions of poor people, mostly black, are reduced to surviving on land without building permits. These neighborhoods, called favelas, lack all services: drinking water, sanitation, reliable electricity, garbage collection, and so on. One in four residents of Rio lives in a favela. A big part of the working class lives in them.

Gangs indeed plague the population. But this operation was not a “fight against crime.” It was an attack on the city’s poor, crammed in favelas. The raid became a genuine massacre, the worst in Brazil’s history: 132 dead (including four police officers).

The operation took place in densely populated areas. Residents recount bursts of gunfire amidst homes and schools. Entire families were caught in the crossfire. Once the police left, people spent the night searching for bodies in the alleyways and surrounding brush. They gathered dozens of corpses in a public square. Several victims had been executed with a bullet to the back of the neck. Others had been bound or tortured.

Brazil’s openly racist police are often described as the “most violent in the world.” In 2023, they killed more than 6,300 people, 87% of whom were black. The killing by cops of a three-year-old girl during a traffic stop in Rio shocked the nation. Nothing has changed since then. Any poor person might be shot dead in the street during a routine stop. Every day young people, often black and unarmed, are killed in the shopping malls, streets, and favelas.

The far right seeks to strengthen itself through security-focused demagoguery about getting tough on gang violence. No matter that some cops are in gangs! The cops use the pretext of securing the favelas to deploy machine guns, armored vehicles, and helicopters.

This massacre has not weakened the gangs at all. Drug money is still laundered with impunity in banks and businesses. Gangs will recruit other young people to replace their slain members. Many poor youth see no other prospect than joining criminal gangs.

These operations aren’t really aimed at fighting crime. They serve to terrorize the working class and gain votes through fear. For favela residents, the police are just another armed gang living off their backs. In today’s Brazil led by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, no solution will come from above. The residents will have to organize and arm themselves to avoid falling prey to the gangs, legal and otherwise, that extort and kill them.