In the first quarter of the year, Rio de Janeiro recorded a record number of deaths at the hands of the police

The state of Rio de Janeiro recorded a record number of deaths – an average of five per day – in police operations during the first quarter of the year, despite the fact that the total number of violent deaths has been significantly reduced.

The period coincides with the First three months of the term of Governor Wilson Witzel, widely elected to align with "hard" politics led by President Jair Bolsonaro to fight crime.

According to figures from the Public Security Institute (ISP) of the government, 434 people died "by the intervention of a state agent" between January and March, a figure 17.9% higher than that recorded for the same period in 2018.

It is about quarter with the highest number of deaths at the hands of the police since the authorities started the statistical series in 1998.

The The total number of violent deaths (including those resulting from police operations) was reduced by 18% compared to the first quarter of 2018, from 1,866 to 1,528.

Intentional homicides, also included in violent deaths, have been further reduced: 26%, from 1,417 to 1,409, during the first three months of the year.

End of March, Governor Witzel acknowledged in an interview the newspaper O Globo that police were already using snipers to shoot distant suspectsan initiative that sparked controversy during the election campaign.

"The protocol is clear: if someone wears a rifle, he must be lethally neutralized"explained the governor.

The beginning of his term was marked by many violent episodes with the participation of the police, like a police operation in a favela in Santa Teresa district, in the center of the city, where 13 people died, nine of them shot in the same house. The operation is being investigated on suspicion of torture and execution.

On Friday, military police announced on Twitter that four "delinquents" died after a "clash" with the police, during an operation against drug traffickers in a poor northern favela of the city.

The Minister of Justice and Security, Sergio Moro, presented to Congress a bill allowing judges to reduce or even stop, to apply sanctions to agents who, acting in self-defense, have an overreaction to "fear, surprise or violent emotion".

For human rights defenders, the project gives the police carte blanche to execute the suspects.

With over 63,000 homicides a year, Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world.