The U.S. supplied special units with lethal weapons.
The U.S. government approved the sale of sniper rifles to a police unit in Brazil, ignoring warnings from the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats that the weapons could be used for extrajudicial killings. This was reported by Reuters, citing information from U.S. officials.
The Rio de Janeiro police unit (BOPE) that purchased the weapons played a key role in a deadly raid last week that resulted in the deaths of 121 people, including four police officers. This operation drew condemnation from human rights advocates and U.N. experts, who suggested that some of the killings may have been unlawful.
According to internal documents from the Rio de Janeiro police reviewed by Reuters, BOPE acquired 20 sniper rifles manufactured by Daniel Defense LLC, based in Georgia, as part of an undisclosed deal in May 2023, during the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden. According to internal documents from the Rio de Janeiro police and the U.S. State Department, the weapons were received only in 2024 amid disputes within the State Department about the appropriateness of the sale.
Under U.S. law, arms exports generally require government approval. While the final license is often issued by the Department of Commerce, the State Department plays a key role in this process.
Elizabeth Bagley, former U.S. ambassador to Brazil, opposed the deal, as did some diplomats working on human rights and law enforcement issues, according to a State Department memorandum from January 2024. The document describes BOPE as "one of the most notorious police units in Brazil in terms of killing civilians."
The Rio police, whose most famous unit is BOPE, were responsible for 703 killings last year, according to official data collected by the Brazilian Forum on Public Security.
Reuters was unable to determine whether BOPE operatives used American-made sniper rifles during the raid last week.
BOPE also purchased accompanying suppressors for the rifles, manufactured by Griffin Armament from Wisconsin, but the delivery of the suppressors was initially blocked by the U.S. government.
In April, U.S. President Donald Trump revoked Biden's 2023 directive that tightened restrictions on arms exports related to human rights.
The purchase, amounting to about $150,000, was not the first of its kind for BOPE. According to State Department documents, in the past, the unit successfully imported at least 800 American-made rifles. However, officials and documents indicate that a series of deadly raids involving this unit in recent years changed the calculations of some diplomats.
The unit's work is widely popular among Rio residents tired of violent crime, including from well-armed gangs. A nationwide poll released on Friday by AtlasIntel showed that 55% of Brazilians support the police operation, with that figure rising to 62% among residents of Rio state. According to official data collected by the Brazilian Forum on Public Security, last year Rio police lost 55 colleagues who died violent deaths.
However, independent experts have frequently criticized BOPE's human rights record, and the Rio police as a whole have consistently faced criticism in annual State Department reports on human rights practices in Brazil.
The State Department memorandum from January 2024, which recommended against selling weapons, noted that the unit was involved in the killing of 23 people during an incident in 2022. This event, known as the "massacre in Vila Cruzeiro," influenced some diplomats' decisions not to approve the sale.
