Police strike could drag on as Brazil counts the human cost
As the death toll tops 120, it is still unclear if many officers will honour a deal to return to work.
Authorities in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo yesterday reached a deal to end a week-long police strike that has sparked violent anarchy and left more than 120 people dead.
State government officials, who had threatened striking police officers with criminal charges, said police were expected to return to work by last night NZ time.
It was still unclear if most officers would stand by the deal and return to work, as the federal government dispatched more troops to the southeastern coastal state to try to quell the unrest.
Some relatives of the striking officers said the police unions that clinched the deal with the government did not represent them.
Espirito Santo is one of several Brazilian states grappling with a budget crisis that is crippling essential public services for millions of citizens. The police strike over pay during the past week left a security vacuum and led to rampant assaults, robberies and looting, often in broad daylight.
Limited protests by police in nearby Rio de Janeiro alarmed residents of the metropolitan area of 12 million people, many of whom live in fear of violence between rival drug gangs and other criminals. Some mayors in Rio de Janeiro state even announced plans to help make up for unpaid police salaries by using city finances to cover the state’s shortfalls.
In Espirito Santo, a spokesman for a local police union said the death toll from the week of unrest had risen to 122. State officials have not confirmed the toll but have said many of those killed were believed to belong to competing gangs. If accurate, the toll would be more than six times the average daily homicide rate in the state last year.
President Michel Temer, addressing the crisis publicly for the first time, yesterday called the strike ‘‘illegal’’ and said: ‘‘The right to protest cannot take the Brazilian people hostage.’’
The federal government, he said, ‘‘will make every effort for Espirito Santo to return to normal as soon as possible’’.
Temer’s comments came as the defence ministry mobilised hundreds more soldiers and federal police to help stem the chaos, focused mostly in the metropolitan region of Vitoria, the state’s capital. After an initial deployment of 1200 troops earlier in the week, the ministry said as many as 3000 would be in place during the weekend.
Rio’s state security secretary yesterday said the limited strike there had caused a small rise in reported crimes but nothing like the violence gripping Espirito Santo. He said the state did not foresee a fullfledged strike.
Espirito Santo officials said charges of rebellion against 700 striking state officers, who in Brazil are organised with military-style ranks and rules, could be dropped for those who returned to work.
Local officials have closed schools, clinics and public transportation, while shops and other businesses have remained shuttered, causing about US$30 million (NZ $41m) in losses, according to a state retail association.
In Rio, where the state government has been struggling to pay salaries, family members of some officers yesterday blocked the entrances to several police stations in an effort to keep officers from patrolling. The tactic, which on a much larger scale has paralysed Espirito Santo, affected just a few districts.
States across Brazil are facing budget and debt problems due to a recession that is the country’s worst on record. The federal government has negotiated debt relief with some states and now finds itself shoring up public security as well.
The mayor of Niteroi, located across a long bay from state capital Rio, said his city would make a one-time payment of 3500 reais (NZ$1500) to police working there.
The city of Macae, near Rio’s offshore oilfields, said it would help to cover the cost of pay from last year that the state still owes.
State police officials, who said they had detained one Rio officer for encouraging a strike online, said the slowdown never affected more than 10 per cent of the police force but that officials would remain on guard in case the protest grew. A bigger strike ‘‘could threaten the lives of all of us’’, said Roberto Sa, the state security secretary.