Opinion: ‘Operation Varginha’ – From Halloween to All Souls’ Day

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Opinion). Today, November 2, is All Souls’ Day (“Finados”), a legal holiday in Brazil, when most Brazilians are mourning their dead. Today, on the other hand, “law and order” supporters in Brazil are celebrating the fact that the country has 25 more “finados” than it had on Halloween.

Late Saturday night, in a rural area outside Varginha, Minas Gerais, the State Police “Special Ops” force known as “Bope” joined the Federal Highway Police in an “operation” designed to capture a gang of criminals suspected of planning to commit a large-scale bank robbery on Sunday.

Brazil has lately seen a surge of bank robberies carried out by large gangs, using armored vehicles, drones, explosives and high-caliber firearms. The modus operandi is to shut down an entire town after midnight, then assault a bank that holds a reserve of banknotes for distribution to regional banks.

The most recent such assault was in Araçatuba, São Paulo state. Hostages were taken, some even tied to the roofs of getaway cars, and three deaths occurred. Well over 30 “bandidos” are believed to have taken part.

But let us return to Halloween in Varginha.

The State Police say they received an anonymous tip that a large group of men had gathered, with many stolen cars, in two farmhouses outside town.

The police further state that their task force (apparently at least 50 agents) went to the two hideouts, intending only to arrest the suspects, but were fired upon by guards, whereupon an intense gun battle ensued.

According to the official police narrative, during the firefights, there were 18 suspects killed at one location; 7 at the other. No suspect offered to surrender. No suspect survived. Some had been wounded and were attended to, and taken to a hospital, but did not survive their wounds.

The best news, according to the police? Not one agent engaged in the action had been killed or even wounded. Not a scratch among all of them.

To prove the dead suspects were “bandidos”, the police have published an array of photographs, some of walls with bullet holes, others of heavy weaponry recovered among the dead suspects, and some 10 cars, all reportedly stolen.

Do you find this official narrative as hard to believe as I do?

A different hypothetical narrative follows.

“The police were tipped off about the hiding place, and decided to invade before the suspects could flee, without requesting approval of their raid. They arrived at the hideouts, surrounded them, wiped out any lookouts and then attacked en masse, mowing down everyone they found in front of them – all 25 “bandidos”. They even killed the farm’s nightwatchman, thus not leaving any survivors who could talk.  They mopped up the crime scene, removed the corpses, took a lot of pictures, and called a press conference to celebrate a great victory.”

This hypothetical narrative closely resembles that of the actual event in Rio de Janeiro’s Jacarezinho community last May, when dozens of civil police, acting without approval, raided the favela, guns blazing, and massacred 29 “bandidos”, executing many in cold blood. They too cleaned up the crime scenes before permitting any investigations. Unlike in Varginha, though, the Rio police left survivors.

It is fair to question the hypothetical narrative: Why would the police simply execute everyone? The answer is deterrence. PCC drug gangs recruit local criminals in towns far from their favela redoubts, to carry out the bank robberies. Local police believe the prospect of certain death will deter locals from getting involved.

There can be no doubt that the “suspects” in Varginha were definitely planning to attack a bank by controlling a town, à la Araçatuba.  In short, all 25 “suspects” were highly dangerous “bandidos”.

“The only good bandido is a dead bandido.” Perhaps 4 out of every 5 Brazilians agree with that phrase, and fully support “law enforcement” agents summarily imposing the death penalty on “bandidos” without bothering with a trial.

The police in Varginha know that; they also know no one will challenge or investigate the official narrative of what happened. No one will seriously consider the hypothetical narrative set out above, nor any other narrative that does not celebrate the death of 25 “bandidos”.

I will not join any such celebration.