The future Brazilian defense minister would be ready to give permission to the police to automatically kill anyone who could be armed. He would also be willing to use snipers to kill criminals.
The future defense minister of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday approved the idea of using snipers from the security forces to stem armed crime in Brazil.
"This is a necessary response to the ostensible carrying of weapons of war in Rio, especially by young people," said Augusto Heleno, the future Defense Minister, on National Radio, about the proposal. snipers. "It's not about killing indiscriminately. We need well established criteria , "he continued. "The Rio police are very brave [...] but they need another kind of support," General Heleno added, referring to operations in the favelas where the heavily armed gangs of drug traffickers rule.
A few hours earlier, the governor-elect of Rio Wilson Witzel, of the far-right movement, had caused an uproar by announcing that he planned to deploy snipers to shoot down armed criminals, even if they did not pose a threat to police officers.
"They should all be slaughtered"
Wilson Witzel, a 50-year-old former federal judge, is one of the governors who surfed the Bolsonaro wave to be elected in the Brazilian general election, adopting a tough line against crime.
The Brazilian President-elect proposes, among other things, to facilitate access to weapons so that "good people" can ensure their self-defense and give "legal protection" to police officers using their weapons in service.
"If you have five criminals shooting at a police officer, they should all be shot," Wilson Witzel told reporters on Tuesday evening.
When asked if his plan also included shooting suspects on the back, he added, "The weapon in the fist? He (the criminal) represents a threat. He will use this weapon to attack anyone who is in front of him, " he added.
In 2017, the police killed 5144 people
Violence is a scourge for the 208 million Brazilians: last year it had a record 63,880 deaths and, in seven years, more deaths than the war in Syria. After very successful Olympic Games in 2016, Rio de Janeiro has been confronted in recent years with a spiral of violence fueled by great budgetary difficulties and corruption.
These excesses forced the federal government in February to give the army the command of the security forces of the state of Rio de Janeiro, the second richest in the country.
In Brazil, the police already have the trigger easy and also does not report much, as has deplored Amnesty International: last year it killed 5,144 people in operations, a figure up 20%.
Snipers, "an escalation of violence"
For human rights activists, Wilson Witzel's announcements are illegal.
"Giving permission to automatically kill anyone who could be armed when there is no imminent threat to the lives of others is an affront to Brazilian and international law," Amnesty International said.
"This would only lead to an escalation of violence and endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, including the police themselves," the organization added.