Federal Police return to investigating those involved in the ‘Rio Abacaxis Massacre’ in the interior of Amazonas | Amazon

The Federal Police (PF) returned to the Rio Abacaxis region, in Nova Olinda do Norte, in the interior of Amazonas, between the 15th and 23rd, to continue investigations into those involved in the massacre that resulted in the murder of at least eight people in August 2020.

In the mission, the PF also stated that it sought to repair the damage left to the victims and families of the crime.

“It is also intended to bring together institutional and social efforts that produce a space for intersectoral and interfederative articulation so that a work agenda can be created to mediate conflicts and strengthen territorial and social public policies, aimed at traditional communities in the region” , he explained.

In April 2023, the former Secretary of Public Security of Amazonas, Colonel Louismar Bonates, and the Military Police Colonel, Airton Norte, were indicted by federal agents for involvement in the massacre.

At the time, Bonates was the Secretary of Public Security of Amazonas, when the military police carried out the operation with more than 50 men in the Nova Olinda do Norte region.

The Federal Police investigation concluded that the troops, under the command of Colonel Norte, invaded houses without a court order, tortured residents and murdered five people, including indigenous people and riverside residents, in the Abacaxis River region.

The group would also be responsible for the disappearance of two other people. According to the investigation, the bodies were thrown into the Abacaxis River, which runs through the municipality.

Still in June last year, the Federal Police carried out an operation in Nova Olinda do Norte to execute warrants against those involved in the “Rio Abacaxis Massacre”. A hotel, used by military police officers to torture one of the victims, and a house, which belong to the same businessman, were targets of the agents.

In July 2020, the then executive secretary of the Government of Amazonas, Saulo Rezende Costa, was shot in the arm after trying to enter a private boat into an area prohibited for sport fishing, in Nova Olinda do Norte.

Days later, four plainclothes military police officers went to the location in the same boat to arrest the shooters. There was a confrontation and two police officers died.

At the time, the Government of Amazonas announced a major operation in the region. Bonates and Norte went to Nova Olinda do Norte with the aim of dismantling the gang that terrorized the residents.

At least one hundred families from eleven communities reported having suffered torture to reveal the whereabouts of the police killers.