Residents of Baixada Santista denounce executions in Operation Shield

Residents of neighborhoods on the outskirts of Baixada Santista denounced this Sunday (11) the practice of executions, torture and violent attacks by military police officers from Operation Shield against the local population and ex-prisoners.

The reports were collected today (11), in Baixada Santista, by a delegation formed by the São Paulo Police Ombudsman's Office, Public Defender's Office, and parliamentarians, such as São Paulo state deputies Eduardo Suplicy (PT) and Mônica Seixas (PSOL).

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“Society and peripheral territories are very scared, reporting truculent, violent and random attacks, search for ex-prisoners, torture and executions. What we are seeing here is a State of exception. The State authorizing its police force to execute people without due legal process, without a judicial warrant, without the chance for full defense,” said deputy Mônica Seixas to Brazil Agency.

The Baixada Santista region is the target of a new phase of Operation Shield by the São Paulo police, launched as a reaction to the death of Rota military police officer Samuel Wesley Cosmo, in Santos, on the 2nd. Until yesterday, 18 civilians were killed in alleged clashes with the police.

“The communities where we passed are reporting that the police openly talk about the threats they make to young drug users, to the little planes, who [a polícia] will avenge the dead police officer, who will leave his son without a father, as happened on the other side, on their side. We are witnessing an operation of revenge and barbarity. We hear absurd reports of violence and torture here, it’s scary”, added Seixas.

The Public Security Secretariat (SSP) was contacted, but has not yet responded. In a note sent this Saturday (10), the department said that all cases are being investigated and that, since the beginning of the year, six deaths of police officers have been recorded: four active and one inactive PM, and one civil police officer on duty.

“As of this Saturday (10), 18 suspects who started clashes against the security forces had died. All cases are rigorously investigated by the 3rd Deic Homicide Police Station [Departamento Estadual de Investigações Criminais] de Santos, with the monitoring of the Public Ministry and the Judiciary”, said the SSP in the note.

The Minister of Human Rights, Silvio Almeida, published yesterday (10), on social media, a note expressing concern regarding the police's actions in Baixada Santista. “The Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC) publicly expresses the federal government’s concern regarding the reports received by the National Human Rights Ombudsman that serious human rights violations have occurred during the so-called Operation Shield”, says the text .

On Friday (9), the city hall of São Vicente, in Baixada Santista, canceled the Street carnival in the city due to the lack of security.