Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais


caption=BOPE Seal
country= Brazil
type= Law Enforcement
dates= 1978 - Present
specialization= Urban warfare, Law Enforcement, Operations in favelas (slums) (Counter-Terrorism)
command_structure=
size= Around 400.
current_commander= Colonel Alberto Pinheiro Nato
garrison= Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ceremonial_chief=
nickname= BOPE
motto=
colors= Black
march=
mascot= Knife In The Skull
battles=
notable_commanders=
anniversaries= 19 January of 1979
decorations=

BOPE ("Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais", or "Special Police Operations Battalion") is the most elite unit in the Military Police of the state of Rio de Janeiro

History and origins

The origins of BOPE date back to 19 January 1978, when Núcleo da Companhia de Operações Especiais (Special Operations Company Nucleus or NuCOE) was formed and placed under the command of the chief of staff for the state's military police. In 1982 the company was moved to the Batalhão de Polícia de Choque, thus becoming part of that unit. Its name was changed again to Companhia de Operações Especiais (Special Operations Company, or COE). In 1984 the name was changed once again to NuCOE and was, again, under the command of the chief of staff. In 1988, the Companhia Independente de Operações Especiais – (Special Operations Independent Company, or CIOE) was created, with its jurisdiction spanning all over the State of Rio de Janeiro. It became BOPE on 01 March 1991.

Urban Warfare

Due to the nature of crime in favelas, BOPE units have extensive experience in urban warfare as well as progression in confined and restricted environments. It also utilizes equipment deemed more powerful than traditional civilian law enforcement, such as weapons chambered in .50 BMG. Fact|date=June 2007

Vehicles

The force has a fleet of armored vehicles, which are known as "Pacificador" (Peacemaker), or "Caveirão" [cite web
url=http://www.global.org.br/portuguese/campanhacontracaveirao.html
title=Campanha Contra o "Caveirão"
accessdate=2008-09-19
publisher=Justiça Global|] (Big Skull). These vehicles are used in operations in the slums (favelas) where BOPE faces intense conflicts with drug dealers. They are equipped with heavy armament: firing ports for IMBEL MD2 rifle variants of the FN FAL, or the H&K G3 rifle, and in the back and front, .30 caliber machine guns. Fact|date=June 2007

These vehicles are also used as ambulances, when wounded officers need evacuation from an area exposed to enemy fire.

Missions

* Break barricades constructed by drug traffickers
* Extract police officers or civilians injured in confrontations
* Serve high-risk arrest warrants
* Rescue hostages
* Suppress prison riots
* Special missions in swamps or mountainous terrains

"Tropa de Elite"

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 censured by the Military Police. [cite web
url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u120946.shtml
title=Livro sobre elite da PM do Rio causou punição, diz autor
author=Mario Hugo Monken
accessdate=2007-09-05
date=29-04-2006
publisher=Folha de S. Paulo] 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.

Equipment

*FAL and Para-FAL
*Colt M16
*Colt M4A1
*AK-47
*H&K G3
*H&K PSG1
*M1 carbine
*Benelli M3 shotgun
*Taurus PT92
*Taurus PT100
*H&K MP5 and MP5K
*FN P90
*H&K HK21A1
*Military explosives
*Grenades

Criticism

In 2004, the Project on Extrajudicial Executions at New York University School of Law reported that BOPE had been implicated in the killing of four youths under the false pretense of their being drug traffickers who resisted arrest. [cite web
url=http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/brazil.html
title=Human Rights in Brazil
publisher=Center for Human Rights and Global Justices, New York University School of Law
accessdate=2008-09-19
quote=BOPE officers falsified the crime scene to incriminate the victims in an attempt to make them seem like members of a drug trafficking gang. No weapons were found with the victims and none of them had a history of criminal activity.] According to Amnesty International, "Brazil's police forces use violent and repressive methods that consistently violate the human rights of a large part of the population," and attribute a number of civilian deaths to BOPE in particular. [cite web
url=http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR190252005
title=They come in shooting": Policing socially excluded communities
accessdate=2008-09-19
date=2005-12-02
publisher=Amnesty International] In March 2006, Amnesty specifically condemned the use of the Caveirão. It stated that deploying the vehicle aggressively, indiscriminately targeting whole communities, highlighted the ineffectiveness of excessive force. [cite web
url=http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR190092006
title=Brazil: Caveirão -- Rio’s real “bogeyman”
date=2006-03-13
accessdate=2008-09-19
publisher=Amnesty International
quote=“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.]

References

ee also

* City Guards
* Brazilian Federal Police
* Brazilian Military Police
* Força Nacional de Segurança
* Military of Brazil
* Brazilian Civil Police
* SWAT (U.S.A)
* BBE (The Netherlands)
* GSG 9 (Germany)
* GOE (Portugal)
* Complexo do Alemão massacre
* Joint Task Force 2 (Canada)

External links

* [http://www.boperj.org/ BOPE official website, in Portuguese]
* [http://www.policiamilitar.rj.gov.br Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil] Official web site, in Portuguese
* http://www.diariodeumpm.net/
* http://www.policiamilitar.rj.gov.br/bope/fotos.htm
* http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Rio/0,,MUL12558-5606,00.html
* http://aledesousa.multiply.com/tag/caveirao
* http://www.viaseg.com.br/artigo_vinicius_viatura_blindada.htm
* [http://www.pmdf.df.gov.br/bope/ Official website of BOPE from Brasil's Federal District]
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdRGSeGvYCk
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1H8RGgn5RE
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGIUETq9-SM