BOPE of PMERJ is one of the best known units of its kind among Brazil's military police organizations. Military Police of Alagoas, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states also call their tactical units BOPE, while the military police of the Federal District and Piauí states call their forces "Special Operations Battalion(s)" ("Batalhão de Operações Especiais" or "BOE").
The force has a fleet of armoured fighting vehicles, which are known as "Pacificador" ("Peacemaker"), or "Caveirão" ("Big Skull") and one UH-1 Huey.[1] These vehicles are used in operations in the slums (favelas) where BOPE face intense conflicts with heavily armed drug dealers. They are equipped with heavy armament: loopholes for IMBEL MD-2, Brazilian version of the Belgian FAL rifle, or HK G3, and in front and behind .50 caliber machine guns. BOPE also operates a wheel loader in order to remove obstacles, barricades and street blockades.[2]
BOPE has generated notoriety due to their role in the violent drug war in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and they have been referred to as a "Death Squad" by multiple newspapers.[4][5][6] One aspect that has been pointed out specifically is their logo, which bears a knife in a skull over crossed pistols (popularly known in Brazil as "faca na caveira", Portuguese for "knife in the skull").[5][7] According to the official BOPE website, the knife in the skull symbolizes "victory over death" and the crossed pistols are the symbol of the military police.[8]
A 2005 report on extra judicial executions by the New York University School of Law indicated that BOPE was involved in the deaths of 4 teenagers under the pretext that they were drug traffickers who were resisting arrest: "BOPE officers falsified the crime scene in order to incriminate the victims. Hoping this way to make them appear to be gang members. No weapon was found on any of the victims. None of them had any previous history of criminal activity."[9]
Amnesty International declared that "the police forces in Brazil adopt violent and repressive methods. These cause violations of fundamental rights of large parts of the population on a regular basis",[10] and attributes a certain number of killed civilians to BOPE in particular. In March 2006, Amnesty International specifically condemned the use of vans with armoured plating, known as a Caveirão. It stated that deploying the vehicle aggressively, indiscriminately targeting whole communities, highlighted the ineffectiveness of excessive use of force.[11]
Similar named police units of the Brazilian police force
Due to the 2016 Summer Olympics, BOPE has received considerably more investments from the Brazilian government.
BOpE or BOPE are acronyms that can refer to the following specialized military police units:
BOpE (Batalhão de Operações Especiais) units:
In 2006, the book Elite da Tropa was published. Written by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares and two BOPE officers, Major André Batista and Captain Rodrigo Pimentel, it provides a semi-fictional account of the daily routine of BOPE as well as some historical events, based on the experiences of the latter two. It describes BOPE as a "killing machine" and details an alleged aborted assassination attempt by some police officers on then-governor Leonel Brizola. The book was controversial at the time of release, and reportedly resulted in Batista being reprimanded and censored by the Military Police.[26]
The book has been made into a movie, Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad), directed by José Padilha (the director of Bus 174), with a screenplay by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani. In 2010 the movie gained a sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within.
Two BOPE operators make an appearance in "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege" as playable operators. These operators are Capitão (Captain) and Caveira (Skull).
OPES is a Brazilian special police unit in the online first-person shooter Crossfire. The OPES logo features a skull and a knife similar to that of the BOPE. The OPES were introduced with the release of the 2011 Brazilian release of the game.
The UFE, one of the main antagonist factions that the protagonist Max goes up against in Max Payne 3, are based on the BOPE with many of them violating fundamental rights of civilians and using violent and lethal actions against denizens of favelas.
^«They come shooting...». Amnesty International, The maintenance of order at the heart of socially excluded populations, report of 2005.
^"Brazil: Caveirão – Rio's real "bogeyman"". Amnesty International. 13 March 2006. Archived from the original on 7 December 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2008. "The caveirão has become a powerful symbol of the failings of public security policies in Rio de Janeiro. It typifies the police's confrontational and divisive approach to Rio's public security crisis," said Marcelo Freixo of Global Justice at the launch of a campaign against the use of the Caveirão in Brazil's favelas.
^"Policia Militar de Roraima". Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014. Polícia Militar de Roraima. PM reforça operação Fecha Quartel nesta quarta-feira
