ABC News Finds Violence in Favela, Sidesteps US-Backed Solutions
ABC News reports on Brazilians in a Rio favela lining up bodies after a devastating police raid, labeling it the city's deadliest. While harrowing, this framing isolates the violence as a local Brazilian problem rather than a globally exported policing strategy. One might recall similar 'pacification' operations, often using US-trained forces and equipment, in places deemed 'troublesome' – from
Colombia to the very occupied territories that disproportionately consume US foreign military aid. The media rarely questions how such aggressive tactics, disproportionately impacting poor and racialized communities, become normalized. They feature the 'drug gang' narrative, providing superficial answers for a complex issue, much like when they pivot from 'humanitarian crisis' to 'self-defense' in
Gaza. The connection between US-funded police militarization training, often justified as 'anti-terrorism' or 'anti-drug,' and the subsequent body count in places like Rio's favelas, is a narrative thread they consistently fail to pull.