SUMMARY

The Government of Brazil has not fought a single armed conflict since 1946, but faces high rates of gang violence and organized crimes often related to drug and arms trafficking. It is in this context the Brazilian government forces, specifically, the state police, have committed acts of one-sided violence.

There appears to have been a variety of motives for policemen in the documented one-sided killings, including revenge for the killing of colleagues or the documentation of their illegal activities, the “extermination” of impoverished street children possibly involved in robberies and the eviction of people from illegal slums. There has also been one-sided violence directed against human rights activists.

Many more police killings have been categorized as “acts of resistance" or as cases of "resistance followed by death". The circumstances of these killings are often unclear. The policeman himself first and foremost makes the determination as to whether an extrajudicial execution or a lawful killing has occurred. Rarely are such self-classifications seriously investigated by the Civil Police. However, it has been suspected that at least some of those killed have been unarmed innocents. This claim is supported by later autopsy reports, and by the fact that much fewer policemen than civilians have been killed in these alleged clashes. However, due to the lack of information on most of the killings, only a few of them could clearly be identified as one-sided violence.

The stage for the killings has most often been the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Most victims have been shot.

The Government of Brazil first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1993, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in August that year when hooded gunmen - among them policemen - opened fire on Vigario Geral shantytowns residents to avenge the death of four policemen killed by alleged drug traffickers. The shooting resulted in the killings of 21 civilians.