Statement regarding the massacre in Rio de Janeiro
PRONUNCIATION
STOP NECROCAPITALISM AGAINST THE FAVELAS, THE
PERIPHERIES AND TOWNS OF BRAZIL AND THE WORLD!
In the early hours of Tuesday, October 28, 2025, what has become the largest massacre in Rio de Janeiro's history began, with 138 deaths as of the latest update. The operation, dubbed Operation Containment, was carried out by the Rio de Janeiro State Military Police (PMERJ), according to Governor Cláudio Castro. The action took place in the Penha and Alemão favela complexes in the city's North Zone, a densely populated area, primarily inhabited by working-class communities and Black and mixed-race people. The official objective was to execute arrest warrants against leaders and members of the Comando Vermelho (CV) drug trafficking organization.
The Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region (RMRJ) has approximately 12 million inhabitants, nearly 7 million of whom reside in the capital, encompassing 21 municipalities. The main thoroughfare for commuters is Avenida Brasil, a strategic avenue that runs through the favela complexes at the heart of the operation. With the deployment of 2,500 soldiers, the state government and its police force unleashed days of terror across the city: numerous streets were closed, public transportation was disrupted, and those who managed to reach their workplaces could not easily return home. This scenario provides an extreme example of how not to manage security in a metropolis.
Given these facts and the complexity of addressing a region stigmatized by its violence, several essential points stand out. First, Rio de Janeiro, the former capital of the republic, has a geography marked by the predominant presence of Black people, especially in favelas and peripheries, which generates a systematic differentiation in the way the State implements its security policies in these territories.
The history of Brazil is marked by the criminalization, judicialization, and persecution of all Black cultures, knowledge, practices, and territories. Second, the city is home to a complex network of actors vying for control of urban territories: drug trafficking groups from various organizations, paramilitary militias, and networks controlling illegal gambling, all competing for territorial control, frequently through armed confrontations.
The third key element is the stigmatization of violence and the reproduction of policies
of state-sponsored extermination for decades. The colonial history of the Military Police's origins—an instrument of the white elite to control enslaved people, fugitives, and the newly freed, all exploited within the capitalist political economy. Rio de Janeiro's police force is marked by corruption and lethal actions in the favelas, defying the fundamental rights of their inhabitants, and supported by media coverage that legitimizes the narrative of the "war on drugs." Its officers patrol heavily armed, even on ordinary days, demonstrating a state of permanent territorial tension in large areas of the city. The racist and class war is also ideological. Racism as a technology of power is present in the news, in every word that racializes crime, daily associating it with Black bodies, while white people are never treated as "criminals" or "terrorists"; they are treated with respect, even if they are criminals. Black deaths are anonymous, while police officers have names, families, and in death, are honored with dignified rituals. The state is not only complicit in fear, but its source. Violence and human rights violations are constant, in addition to police operations: physical assaults, failure to provide assistance, home invasions, use of residences as traps, and the destruction of property. The state generates terror and insecurity by transforming communities into war zones. Yet it fails to guarantee prevention policies, infrastructure, education, decent housing, and all kinds of public services.
In a context of state political crisis, with five former governors arrested in the last nine years, and given the intensification of neoliberal policies in Rio de Janeiro, the operation can be interpreted as an electoral strategy. A segment of the population supports the radicalization of police actions, the systematic violation of the Constitution, and the weakening of state institutions responsible for guaranteeing fundamental rights. The military action is a desperate attempt by the political group in power to consolidate its position ahead of the upcoming elections by using brutalized bodies as a spectacle and a promise of public safety.
On the other hand, no theory or concept accurately captures the widespread unease of Rio de Janeiro's citizens and the Brazilian population in general. Fanon's notion of "bare life" or "zone of non-being" resonates with the 74 bodies found by the local population in wooded areas, some decapitated—victims whom the military agents didn't even have the decency to treat as human beings; soldiers in the Middle Ages would have shown more honor. These were people deprived of their right to a constitutional trial, their sentences determined by agents of the very same state, who wielded rifles and machine guns instead of the gavel of justice. This occurred in a country where the death penalty was officially abolished in 1988.
The massacres in Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Gaza and Sudan, among other places around the world, alert us to the violence of capitalism in its neoliberal model. The ethical and moral foundations that underpin this system are in question and, from their inception, have been unsustainable in the face of the reproduction of power and the model of capital accumulation. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are values that have never been present for colonized and racialized peoples, for whom modernity remains synonymous with barbarism and colonialism.
STOP THE MASSACRE IN THE FAVELAS AND THE PERIPHERIES!
STOP THE FAKE WAR ON DRUGS!
STOP NECROCAPITALISM AGAINST THE FAVELAS, THE PERIPHERIES AND THE PEOPLE OF BRAZIL AND THE WORLD!
Amidst the fragments, the rubble, and the social mourning, with all the pain in the world,
We continue fighting for life, dignity, and territory.
PRONOUNCEMENT
ENOUGH OF NECROCAPITALISM AGAINST AS FAVELAS, AS
PERIPHERIES AND POVOS OF BRAZIL AND THE WORLD!
In the early hours of 10/28 (Thursday), a mega operation by the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro (PMERJ) launched by Operation Contenção, the second governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, began. The police action was carried out in the Penha and German favela complexes, in the North Zone of the city, a densely populated region, mainly by popular classes and older and brown people, where the objective was to carry out prison orders against leaders and members of the drug trafficking organization Comando Vermelho (CV).
The Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (RMRJ) has about 12 thousand inhabitants, with around 7 thousand inhabitants of the capital, making up 21 municipalities. The main relocation route for workers is Avenida Brasil, the most important road in the city that passes through complex neighborhoods of favelas adjacent to the operation. With a mobilization of 2,5 thousand soldiers, the state government and its police will cause days of terror throughout the city, because many roads are dated, urban buses will stop circulating, and those who will manage to complete their jobs will not be able to return home easily. This scenario is an example of how security policy should not lead to a large city.
Given these facts and the complexity of addressing a region stigmatized by violence, several essential points are highlighted. Primeiro, or Rio de Janeiro, former capital of the Republic, has its geography marked by the predominant presence of black people, especially in the favelas and peripheries, which generates a systematic difference in the way the State implements its security policies in these territories. The history of Brazil is marked by the criminalization, judicialization and persecution of all black cultures, traditions, practices and territorialities. Second, the city harbors a complex network of actors who dispute urban territories: groups of drug traffickers from different organizations, paramilitary militias and networks of control of illegal bets (jogo do bicho), which compete for territorial control, frequently through armed confrontations.
The third key element is the stigmatization of violence and the reproduction of state policies of extermination over decades. The colonial history of the Military Police is an instrument of the white elite to control exiled, fugitive, and re-liberated people, all explored in the capitalist political economy. The Rio de Janeiro police are marked by corruption and lethal actions in the favelas, challenging the fundamental rights of their inhabitants and supported by media coverage that legitimizes the “war on drugs” narrative. Their patrol agents were heavily armed, even on normal days, evidencing a state of permanent territorial tension in large areas of the city. The racist and class war is also ideological.
Racism as a technology of power is in the news, in every word that racializes or crime, hitting the black body daily, while white people are never treated as “criminals” or “terrorists”, they are treated with respect, just as they are criminals. The black dead are anonymous, while the police have names, families, and in death, they are honored with dignified rituals. The State is not only accomplice of the media, but its source. Violence and violations of human rights are constant, in addition to police operations: physical attacks, failure to provide assistance, home invasions, use of residences as weaponry, destruction of property and property. The State generated terror and insecurity by transforming communities into war zones. But it does not guarantee prevention policies, infrastructure, education, decent housing and all types of public services.
In the midst of a political crisis of the State, where five former governors have been imprisoned in the last nine years, in addition to the resurgence of neo-liberal policies in Rio de Janeiro, it is possible to analyze the operation as an eleitoreira strategy. This is because a significant part of the population is linked to the radicalization discourse of police actions, to non-compliance with the Constitution, and to the deterioration of other equipment that guarantees fundamental rights for the people. The military action is a desperate attempt by a political group that is out of state power to strengthen itself for upcoming elections using brutalized bodies as a spectacle and promise of public security.
On the other hand, there are no concepts, theories or texts that manage to express the exaggeration or general ill-being of the Brazilian people, and the Brazilian population in general, in these last few days. Perhaps thinking about “new life”, or “zone of non-being” (by Frantz Fanon), has a relationship with the 74 bodies found in the bushes of the population. Corpos that military agents do not have the decency to treat as human beings; soldiers of Idade Média teriam mais honor. People who died without being judged second to the Constituição, had their sentence decided by agents of the same State, who, instead of martelo giving justice, wielded guns and machine guns. Isto em a country where the penalty of death was
officially eradicated in 1988.
The cases of shantytowns in Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Gaza and Sudão, among other places in the world, alert us to the violence of capitalism in its neoliberal model. The ethical and moral bases that underpin this system are in place, and from its origin it is not sustained in the face of the reproduction of power and the model of capital accumulation. Liberdade, equality and fraternity are values that are never present for the colonized and racialized people, for those who modernity is realized today as barbarism and colonialism.
FIM AOS MASSACRES NAS FAVELAS AND PERIPHERIES!
FIM A FALSE WAR AGAINST DRUGS!
FIM AO NECROCAPITALISM AGAINST THE FAVELAS, PERIPHERIAS AND POVOS DO BRAZIL AND DO MUNDO!
In my last year of chaos, rubble and social mourning, like everyone else in the world, we continue
fighting for life, for dignity and for territory.
30th October 2025
CLACSO Working Group on Bodies, Territories, Resistances/CLACSO Working Group on Bodies, Territories, Resistances
This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Groups and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
