Rio's poor 'terrorised' as police use 'big skull tanks' to storm slums

Amnesty International and a coalition of Brazilian human rights organisations say thecaveirão (big skull) is used endemically by the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (Bope), Rio's elite police force, to "terrorise" people in the city's favelas.

Rio police bought their first caveirão four years ago and now own 10 of the armour-plated military vehicles, which they claim are necessary to protect their officers in the fight against the drug traffickers who control many of the shanty towns.

A report launched yesterday by Amnesty contains a series of eyewitness accounts that claim the communities are suffering devastating effects from the force's military tactics.

One account says that Carlos Henrique, 11, was on his way home last July when police stormed his community of Vila do João in a caveirão, killing him with a shot to the head.

Two months later in Favela de Acari, residents reported that 17-year-old Michel Lima da Silva was also shot and killed by an officer from acaveirão. The young man's corpse was then hoisted on to the back of the vehicle and paraded around the streets. Money was demanded for the return of the body.

Between May and September last year, 11 people were killed in operations involving the vehicles, according to the report.

Despite the risk to people living in the favelas, residents claim the caveirões, which hold up to 12 armed officers each, continue regularly to enter the poor districts, firing at random on residential streets and broadcasting messages through loudspeakers fixed to the vehicle.

Some of these messages are"danger" warnings, and chilling broadcasts such as "we are here to take your souls" are routinely used, rights activists say. The sinister threat fits in with the grim-reaper imagery of the Bope logo, a skull crossed with two guns, which appears on the side of the vehicle.

Read More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article351120.ece