Massacres

It's impossible to list the massacres hidden beneath Rio de Janeiro's official history. Countless killings, after all, are woven into the trajectory of a city that grew rooted in a great genocide: that of the indigenous peoples and enslaved Black people, many of whom perished even during the atrocious voyage across the Atlantic.

In the early hours of July 23, 1993, 72 children and young people were around the Igreja da Candelária. Some were sleeping, others were wandering through the neighboring streets. It was almost midnight when two cars approached, firing rifle shots. Six boys died on the spot: Paulo Roberto de Oliveira – 11 years old, Anderson de Oliveira Pereira – 13 years old, Marcelo Candido de Jesus – 14 years old, Valdevino Miguel de Almeida – 14 years old, Gambazinho – 17 years old, Leandro Santos da Conceição – 17 years old. Afterward, the cars continued through the streets of Centro in search of other victims: two more were killed, Paulo José da Silva – 18 years old, Marcos Antonio Alves da Silva – 19 years old, and one survivor, Wagner da Silva – now 45 years old.

Image description: The image is a photograph of a protest. People are holding a large black sign with white lettering. On the left side, there are images of people who were shot. In the center, it reads "OUR DEAD HAVE A VOICE!" in capital letters. The people are on a street, with buildings and trees in the background.

Four police officers were convicted: Marcus Vinicius Emmanuel, Nelson Oliveira dos Santos, Marco Aurélio Dias Alcântara, Arlindo Lisboa Afonso Junior, and three were acquitted. Twenty-five years later, all of the convicted men are free, alive, and moving around among us. Wagner da Silva, who survived the four shots fired at him on the day of the massacre and four more taken the following year, in an attack at Central do Brasil, was forced to move to Switzerland under the care of the Witness Protection Program. Of the other 63 survivors, 39 have already died of violent causes. Among them, Tiago Veríssimo, who was hit by a "stray" bullet in Complexo da Maré, Elizabeth Maia, who was murdered in front of her house, and Sandro do Nascimento, who was the protagonist of another regrettable episode in our history, the hijacking of bus 174.

Image description: The image is a photograph of a protest inside a church. In the central part, two women hold a banner reading "MÃES DE MAIO" and "CONTRA O TERRORISMO DO ESTADO" ("MOTHERS OF MAY" and "AGAINST STATE TERRORISM"). The banner has a black-and-white design with a central symbol. In the background, people are seated and standing, some holding cameras. The church windows let in natural light, illuminating the space.

Before Candelária, there was Acari, in 1990. And just one month after the fateful day of July 23, 1993, 36 hooded men invaded the Vigário Geral favela to break into homes and randomly murder no fewer than 21 residents, in retaliation for the deaths of police officers in the region a few days earlier.

It didn't stop there. Baixada Fluminense, 2015: plainclothes police officers circulated through different neighborhoods and killed no fewer than 29 people, among them, children. Costa Barros, 2015: five young men died after their car was machine-gunned with 111 shots. They had left home to buy a snack, celebrating one of their first paychecks. North Zone, 2014: Claudia Silva Ferreira is dragged for 250m after rolling out of the trunk of a 9th BPM patrol car. She had been shot during a police operation on Morro da Congonha, in Madureira.

Image description: The image is a photograph of a demonstration in front of a building. In the upper left, there is a handwritten sign with text in Portuguese. In the center, more people are holding other signs and flags. On the right, there is a sign with photos of people and text in Portuguese. The flag on the left side has green, yellow, and blue colors, with a symbol in the center. All the participants are raising their signs and appear to be at a public protest.

In the 2020s, Rio de Janeiro experienced a sharp escalation in armed violence, marked by a sequence of massacres that occurred both in police operations and in clashes between criminal groups and militias, especially in favelas and outlying areas of the capital and the metropolitan region. On May 6, 2021, a massive police operation in the favela of Jacarezinho resulted in the deaths of 28 people, making it the deadliest police massacre in the state's history up to that point. On May 24, 2022, Vila Cruzeiro, in the Complexo da Penha, was the site of another police massacre, with around 25 deaths, consolidating a pattern of large-scale operations in favela areas. This scenario worsened even further when, on October 28, 2025, an operation in the Complexo do Alemão and Penha became the deadliest in Rio's history, with more than 120 deaths.

Among all these massacres, there are at least two common traits: the fact that their victims are Black and poor, and that their perpetrators are protected in some way by the idea of “authority” delegated by the State.