Brazil police killings leave women waiting for justice

Women in Brazil's Bahia state are seeking justice for relatives they say were killed by police, as public security becomes a central issue before the October 25 presidential runoff.

In Salvador's Nordeste de Amaralina complex, Vilma Alves de Oliveira says her 20-year-old son, Joao Vitor, was killed by police in 2023 after going out for a beer with a friend. She said witnesses told her officers opened fire, security camera footage disappeared, witnesses later withdrew out of fear and no ballistic analysis was conducted.

The Brazilian Public Security Yearbook recorded 1,570 deaths resulting from law enforcement operations in Bahia in 2025, the highest figure in the country. The yearbook said more than 80 percent of those killed in police operations in 2025 were Black, and most were men aged 15 to 29.

Bianca Souza, a lawyer with the Odara Institute, said police violence in Brazil is rooted in structural racism and that young Black men from poor areas have historically been the main targets of police operations.

Other women described long waits for accountability. Rita Cassia Souza dos Santos said she has waited 13 years for the trial of three police officers accused of killing her son, Carlos Alberto, in 2013. Elisangela Souza Santos said police killed her husband, Marivaldo, while she was pregnant.

Bahia's public security secretariat has announced a plan to introduce 1,300 body-worn cameras to monitor police conduct. Activists have also helped advance the Ana Luiza bill, which proposes medical, financial and psychological support for victims of police operations.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised to create a public security ministry and weaken criminal gangs financially. His runoff opponent, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, has proposed building more prisons and has praised harsher incarceration models.