Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s populist president, was elected on a promise to crack down on crime. He can claim at least one victory. In the first five months of this year, which were also his first five in office, violent deaths in the country—including those from homicides, assaults and robberies—were 22 percent lower than in the same period in 2018. But Mr Bolsonaro, who has said that “a good criminal is a dead criminal”, has also talked up the use of lethal force to deter crime. On this score, the statistics are striking, too. Between January and June, police in the state of Rio de Janeiro, one of Brazil’s most violent states, killed 881 people, or about five per day. This represents a nearly 15 percent increase on the same period last year. By way of comparison, there were 2,964 homicides in the state in the same period.
The Economist: Police killings in the state of Rio de Janeiro are at a 20-year high
A man is frisked by a Military Police officer after clashes during a protest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 9, 2019. - Residents of a shantytown in the north of Rio de Janeiro protested after the death of a young man who, according to relatives, was shot when he was waiting at a bus stop on his way to school.
