NY Times Online News Report:
April 12, 2007
Brazilian Police Say Death Squad Killed Hundreds
By REUTERS
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Police arrested 15 people on Thursday, including
police officers and businessmen, suspected of participating in a death
squad operation that has killed hundreds of people in northeast Brazil.
Gunmen based in Caruaru city in Pernambuco state assassinated three or
four people a week on average, or around 200 victims a year, federal
police said in a statement.
The vigilante operation had been operating for as long as five years,
according to a spokesman for Pernambuco's public security secretary.
The killers charged from 1,000 to 5,000 reais ($500 to $2,500) per
murder.
Hiring gunmen to carry out vigilante justice or to settle scores is a
common practice in Brazil's cities and countryside, where laws often are
not enforced due to understaffed or corrupt police forces.
``Unfortunately, these extermination groups exist all over Brazil. They
reflect the lack of state presence and are a blemish on our image,''
said Marcos Antonio da Silva Costa, a federal public prosecutor in
Pernambuco.
Amnesty International
groups have regularly denounced death squad activity and police
brutality in Brazil and have accused the authorities and the judiciary
of not acting firmly enough to halt it.
``This crackdown is a step forward. The question is whether it will
continue or was just a one-off show of force by an incoming state
government,'' Costa told Reuters by telephone.
The suspects in the Pernambuco group will be charged with homicide as
well as drug- and gun-trafficking, the police statement said.
The statement also said that policemen suspected of involvement
routinely eliminated evidence at crime scenes.
A public prosecutor in Pernambuco state has been denouncing a similar
``extermination group'' for years and receives regular death threats as
a result.
Brazil is the fourth-most violent country in the world, with around 30
homicides per 100,000 inhabitants each year, according to the
Organization of Ibero-American States.
Dozens of high-profile killings over the past year have caused public
outrage and increased pressure on President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to
get tough on crime.