(UDHAYAM, BRAZIL) – At least 100 or more people have been reported killed during a six-day strike by police in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, as hundreds of police troops patrolled streets trying to maintain order with schools and businesses closed and public transport frozen.
Most of the violence was centered in and around Vitoria, which are the state capital and a wealthy port city ringed by golden beaches and packed with mining and petroleum companies.
The Army mobilized airborne troops as well as armored vehicles on Thursday to reinforce roughly 1,200 soldiers and federal police trying to contain the chaos in Espirito Santo which is a coastal state north of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Gustavo Tenorio, a spokesman for the police union said “We cannot establish definite motives for these killings at this time as the crisis is still ongoing, but an initial evaluation by the homicide division seems to indicate that a majority of those who have died were tied to drug trafficking or some other type of crime.”
Amidst an economic downturn which has hammered public finances in Brazil, and many states struggling to ensure even basic health, education and security services, police in Espirito Santo are also demanding a pay rise.
