Brazil police refuse to end week-long strike in state plagued by murders

VITORIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Police in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo did not return to work yesterday, although the government announced hours earlier that a deal had been struck to end a week-long strike that has led to a sharp increase in murders.

Most of the violence has been centred in the poor regions of metropolitan Vitoria, the state capital, which is ringed by beaches and where the petroleum, mining and port industries have a strong presence.

Yesterday, Vitoria streets were calm as more soldiers and elite federal police arrived in the state, with more than 4,000 in place to bolster the initial deployment of 1,200 soldiers.

Officials in the state, located just north of Rio de Janeiro, said late Friday that they had reached an agreement with representatives of the police for patrols to resume at 7 am (0900 GMT). But family members of the officers told Reuters that no such accord had been reached.

Defense Minister Raul Jungmann and Brazil’s chief prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, met with state officials and representatives of the police in Vitoria yesterday in an effort to advance negotiations, but no accord was reached.

Jungmann told the UOL news portal that striking police officers “are contributing to the rise in crime” and that “whether they know it or not, are on the side of the criminals that are killing citizens.”

The wives of police and other relatives, who have led the strike by forming human blockades of barracks, refused to budge yesterday.

Under Brazilian law, it is illegal for police to strike, which is why their family members have taken action to physically prevent police cars leaving barracks. The police themselves have not tried to remove their families, leading to fears among some of the relatives that soldiers could try remove them by force.

The striking police said they had not received a raise in four years and their base pay of about 2,700 reais ($867) a month was among the lowest in Brazil. to