The Bloodstained “Democracy”: Police Brutality and People’s Resistance in Brazil
In April 2025, during a police raid in Rio de Janeiro against two “suspects,” five unidentified individuals were shot dead on the spot. The police claimed that all the deceased were “criminal suspects.” In Brazil, which the BBC calls “one of the world’s largest democracies,” such police massacres have become commonplace. From 2009 to 2013, police in Brazil killed 11,197 people in just five years, nearly matching the number of killings by American police over thirty years (11,090). In other words, on average, six people die each day at the hands of the state machinery. Even in 2021, when the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court ordered police to cease violent operations in favelas, police still murdered at least 29 people in Rio de Janeiro alone. According to the 2023 “Estado Letal” report by the Fogo Cruzado Institute, in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro alone, there are an average of three police killings per day. In the first 75 days of 2025, the number of stray bullet victims increased by 58%, with 66% of victims directly shot during police operations. Out of 27 police operations, 7 ended with the deliberate murder of victims by police. On January 8, 2025, police stormed Fiocruz School in Manguinhos, killing four people; staff responsible for campus security were violently arrested while trying to protect children, the elderly, and patients, and even windows of the Bio Manguinhos vaccine laboratory were shattered by police gunfire, injuring a worker. As revealed by the research of O Globo, between January and February 2025, 147 people in Rio de Janeiro died in armed conflicts initiated by police, a 27% increase compared to the same period in 2024. After the passage of ADPF 635, which was supposed to limit police power, reactionary forces in Brazil even granted police greater authority: they can conduct militarized operations around schools, hospitals, and clinics without prior notice, and can freely use helicopters — as early as 2021, an operation involved 200 police officers, armored vehicles, and helicopters simultaneously.
As Lenin clearly pointed out in The State and Revolution: “The state is an instrument for class oppression and a product of irreconcilable class contradictions”, the state has never been a representative of the interests of the entire nation nor an organ of class harmony. In Brazil, the state machinery — such as police, military, courts, and prisons — is fundamentally established and operated by large landowners and comprador bourgeoisie to maintain semi-colonial semi-feudal order and suppress the masses of workers. Therefore, police killings are not accidental but an inevitable expression of the state’s essence; the exploitative class’s state machinery, regardless of the masks of “democracy” or “human rights,” is a tool of violence used by a minority of exploiters to oppress the vast majority of the oppressed. Just as the bourgeois bureaucratic government tries to portray police as defenders of legality, order, fairness, and justice, the Brazilian landowning and comprador government and its mouthpieces also try to gloss over police crimes. They mobilize television, radio, newspapers, and social media to repeatedly claim: police are “law enforcers,” “guardians of public safety,” and “defenders of social peace,” and that violence by police is justified by the existence of gangsters and drug traffickers in favelas, or as revenge for comrades who die in the line of duty. But even if there are indeed “criminal elements” in favelas, that cannot justify police brutality — Engels eloquently argued in The Condition of the Working Class in England: “The most obvious and extreme manifestation of contempt for social order is crime. As soon as the causes that lead workers to moral degradation exert a stronger and more concentrated influence than usual, workers will inevitably become criminals, just as water turns into vapor at 80°C. Under the brutal and savage treatment of bourgeoisie, workers gradually become like water, lacking their own will, and are inevitably subject to natural laws — at a certain point, all their actions become involuntary…” Ultimately, it is the heavy exploitation and oppression of the working people in this extremely dark and decayed semi-colonial semi-feudal society that leads to their hunger, cold, insecurity, and the influence of reactionary imperialist culture and bourgeois interests (such as gang support and drug profits, which are inherently bourgeois), resulting in rampant “criminal elements” in favelas. The true aim of reactionaries in Brazil is not to fight crime or protect the people’s interests, but to use these as a pretext to intensify fascist dictatorship and consolidate their shaky rule.
“All reactionaries are paper tigers.” The fascist policies of the Brazilian ruling class are a manifestation of their ruling crisis — faced with the increasing awareness and struggle of the people, they resort to violence, which only accelerates their demise. In recent years, the Brazilian people have increasingly rejected bourgeois elections. In the 2024 municipal elections, abstention reached 21.68%, the highest since 2000 (excluding the 2020 pandemic period). This means over 33.8 million registered voters chose not to participate. However, this figure still falls far short of the actual number, as it does not include spoiled ballots, blank votes, young people aged 16-18 who are not required to vote, or voters who failed to reissue their documents after multiple absences — such situations are quite common in Brazil. The number of eligible voters in irregular registration status is uncertain: in 2017, it was reported as 1.9 million, but in 2018, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) canceled over 6 million voter registrations; in 2024, in Bahia alone, more than 1.6 million voter IDs were canceled. These data indicate that the Brazilian people are increasingly shedding the illusion of bourgeois democracy and realizing that participating in elections cannot change anything.
The boycott of elections is not without reason but results from long-term practical education and class struggle: whether it is the “left” (referring to President Lula and the Workers’ Party, which has long been in power in Brazil) that issues empty promises of “land reform” and “socialism” while suppressing the people or the openly reactionary “right” (referring to former President Bolsonaro and his Social Liberal Party, which exploited popular anger against Lula’s government to win elections and later lost to Lula), all political parties in Brazil’s Congress are nothing but lackeys of landowners and comprador interests; from Quilombos to the Landless Rural Workers Movement (LCP), impoverished farmers fighting against landlords, comprador interests, and imperialism have been at the forefront of the Brazilian revolutionary struggle — “From Quilombos to the Landless Rural Workers Movement — 500 Years of Land Struggles in Brazil”. In April 2000, the Landless Rural Workers Movement (LCP), advocating for liberation through new democratic revolution, was founded. They established people’s assemblies in rural areas, mobilized farmers to seize landlord land, armed self-defense, improved rural education, health, and culture, and developed revolutionary forces in the countryside — “The Landless Rural Workers Movement Laying Foundations for a New Regime in Brazil’s Countryside”. The old Brazilian state responded with intensified repression — police and military frequently invade peasant communities, arrest and kill activists, attempting to maintain rule through violence. “When chaos reaches its peak, order will come; when darkness is at its deepest, light will shine,” yet these fascist methods have not suppressed the revolution but instead sparked broader resistance. Brazil’s new democratic revolutionary movement is developing, and the oppressed masses are increasingly uniting, eager to smash the old world and build a new one.
This revolutionary wave is reflected not only in widespread land struggles but also in the growth of workers’, students’, and women’s movements, as well as revolutionary organizations’ critique of bourgeois ideology — demonstrating the rooted and thriving strength of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism among the masses in Brazil:
In the Tiago Campim dos Santos area of Rondonia, facing ongoing theft, threats, and violence, the peasant masses have shown high levels of organization and determination. In March 2025, when six long-time troublemakers were expelled from the community, they attempted to resist with weapons and were shot dead by the people — these troublemakers had repeatedly been warned by the people’s assembly to stop their illegal activities but ignored warnings, continuing to loot and intimidate villagers. The people’s assembly decided to expel them. This incident reflects the potential of the masses to establish revolutionary order and forge a new regime through struggle.
Correspondingly, the urban workers’ movement is also growing — “Brazilian Proletariat”. Workers have been actively opposing the 6×1 workweek (Brazilian law mandates six days work, one day off, 44 hours per week), through marches, speeches, and distributing leaflets, gaining popular support. In the November 2024 workers’ protests, they condemned Brazil’s severe political crisis and government repression of farmers; on November 25, 2024, about 2,000 teachers in Rio de Janeiro decided to strike, protesting reduced holidays, longer working hours without pay raises, and declining education quality. They held large demonstrations, blocked main roads, and were suppressed with tear gas and other means by police, with one teacher arrested and protesters demanding their release. On January 15, 2025, over 500 workers at Candido Portinari thermal power plant protested against the government’s suspension of contracts with management due to the “sustainable transition” policy, risking over 5,000 jobs; in February 2025, bus drivers supported students’ fight for free transportation passes through strikes; from March 31 to April 2, 2025, thousands of “motoboys” (delivery and ride-hailing workers) in 59 cities across 19 states went on strike, demanding higher pay, increased delivery radius, and better labor protections. During this period, major shopping centers in the capital were blockaded, deliveries dropped sharply, demonstrating the significant impact of the strike.
Student movements are also gradually emerging. Progressive students organize protests and marches against privatization of education, police infiltration, and right-wing extremism, demanding better infrastructure and supporting land struggles of farmers, even fighting alongside farmers in places like Barro Branco (September-October 2024) and Teka Haw village (February 2025). Student organizations also frequently hold joint political activities with worker and peasant organizations and support the Palestinian national liberation movement (April 2025).
The role of women in this historic struggle is becoming increasingly prominent: in Barro Branco, women play key roles in organization, propaganda, logistics, and self-defense against police, actively supporting the Palestinian liberation movement as part of their internationalist duties; the Women’s People’s Movement (MFP) exposes bourgeois feminism as a tool of imperialism and false banner serving class oppression. True women’s liberation can only be achieved through revolutionary struggle led by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and they criticize the decadent bourgeois culture of色情 (pornography).
As Chairman Mao said: “The people, and only the people, are the driving force in creating world history.” The Brazilian people are proving this truth through their actions on the road of new democratic revolution. Their struggle is not only a challenge to their own exploiting classes but also a blow to the imperialist system worldwide.
Related links (another post on the forum): “Seize the land, destroy the large estates” — About the armed struggle of the Brazilian Communist Party (P.C.B.), the Landless Rural Workers Movement (LCP), and Brazilian farmers fighting to seize landlord land and resist police violence
Original news links:
https://redherald.org/2025/04/18/brazil-5-people-have-been-murdered-in-a-police-massacre/
巴西里约警方在贫民窟抓杀警嫌犯 击毙五人
Cinco são mortos em operação da Polícia na Ladeira dos Tabajaras, no RJ | CNN Brasil
Cinco morrem em operação da Polícia Civil no Rio - 15/04/2025 - Cotidiano - Folha
https://www.takungpao.com/news/232111/2021/0508/582996.html
过度执法、复仇杀人，巴西警察怎么了？|界面新闻 · 天下
Material sources (due to complexity, only listed websites): Red Herald, A Nova Democracia, Resistencia Camponesa, Liga Operária, Movimento Feminino Popular, The Worker Newspaper, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Library
