NGO Human Rights Watch accuses Lula da Silva of inaction on police violence in Brazil

Human Rights Watch (HRW), a non-governmental human rights organization respected around the world, has accused Brazilian President Lula da Silva of failing to act on police violence in Brazil. Levels of police violence, already extremely high during the four years under former President Jair Bolsonaro, an outspoken defender of the use of force by security forces, increased further in 2023, the first year of Lula da Silva’s new presidential term.

A HRW report now published says that throughout 2023, Lula da Silva and his government have taken no effective action to combat and reduce police violence, despite repeated advocacy on behalf of minorities, the poorest and the most vulnerable. Likewise, the document adds, although Lula and his ministers created a Ministry of Racial Equality, they did not take any forceful action to protect poor black people, who make up 83% of those killed in Brazilian police violence.

The international non-governmental organization acknowledges that in Brazil, most police forces operate at the regional level and report to the governors of each state, but this does not interfere with the actions of the central government or justify the apparent inaction of the federal executive. As for HRW, Lula could create structural federal rules to discourage or at least reduce police abuses, and could, in another example, condition public safety funding in the states on reductions in violence and mainly force-related deaths state security. .

During 2023, police violence, which leftists as well as Lula and their allies attributed to Jair Bolsonaro’s violent rhetoric, increased in 16 of Brazil’s 27 states, even though those who previously criticized him are now in power. In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state and which prides itself on having the most professional and civilized police force, police deaths rose by 37% in Lula’s first year as president, with even higher rates reported elsewhere in the country. indicators. , such as Rio de Janeiro, in the northern states, especially in the interior of the Amazon, and, as an example of police brutality, in Bahia.

In the state of Bahia, the number of deaths of alleged suspects during police intervention increased by 80% in 2023 compared to the previous year, an absurd increase in violence by local security forces. This brutality, justified by authorities on the grounds of fighting organized crime, cost the lives of more than 400 people between January and September alone, and in October, the month with the highest number of victims, a further 73 people were killed after an agent was killed. killed by drug traffickers on the outskirts of El Salvador.

But in his public appearances on the topic throughout 2023, Lula sharply criticized police violence in the opponent-run states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and completely ignored the massacre in Bahia. Bahia was the state where Lula received the most votes in the 2022 presidential elections and was governed by an ally very close to the president.