The total number of shootings in Rio de Janeiro state increased by 36 per cent since Brazilian lawmakers approved a decree last February, which put the Brazilian military in control of state security operations.
According to new figures from the Intervention Observatory, a collection of civil-society groups that have been monitoring the intervention, there were 3,210 reported shootings in Rio, while 2,355 incidents had been reported in the four months preceding the intervention.
The number of military operations has also increased substantially in the period, the report said. Federal armed forces conducted three operations in February, nine in March, 34 in April, and 55 in May. Meanwhile, there is no official information on the contingents deployed by the military in these operations.
In order to obtain its data, the Intervention Observatory filed 77 requests for information – Rio’s police authorities denied 37 of these requests.
