BOPE - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (Portuguese for Special Police Operations Battalion), mostly known by its acronym BOPE, is a special forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

unit of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State

Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State

The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State like other military polices in Brazil is a reserve and ancillary force of the Brazilian Army, and part of the System of Public Security and Brazilian Social Protection...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

.

Due to the nature of crime in favela

Favela

A favela is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos . This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in...

s, BOPE units have extensive experience in urban warfare

Urban warfare

Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat is very different from combat in the open at both the operational and tactical level...

as well as progression in confined and restricted environments. It also utilizes equipment deemed more powerful than traditional civilian law enforcement.

History and origins

The origins of BOPE date back to January 19, 1978, when the Special Operations Company Nucleus (in Portuguese: Núcleo da Companha de Operações Especiais or NuCOE) was formed and placed under the command of the chief of staff for the state's Military Police

Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State

.

In 1982 the company was moved to the Riot Control Battalion (Batalhão de Polícia de Choque), thus becoming part of that unit changing its name to Special Operations Company (Companhia de Operações Especiais 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 Special Operations Independent Company (Companhia Independente de Operações Especiais or CIOE) was created, with its jurisdiction spanning all over the State of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro (state)

Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...

. It became a battalion on March 1, 1991.

Significant Roles

Providing additional security at special events.
Break barricades constructed by drug dealers
Shoot to kill
Deadly force
Deadly force, as defined by the United States Armed Forces, is the force which a person uses, causing—or that a person knows, or should know, would create a substantial risk of causing—death or serious bodily harm...

at criminals threatening human life
Exterminate drug trafficking criminal factions
Extract police officers or civilians injured in confrontations
Rescuing officers and citizens captured or endangered by gunfire.
Serve high-risk arrest warrant
Arrest warrant
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under the Criminal Code of Canada....

s
Hostage rescue
Hostage crisis
A hostage crisis develops when one or more terrorists or criminals hold people against their will and try to hold off the authorities by force, threatening to kill the hostages if provoked or attacked....
Stabilizing situations involving high-risk suicidal subjects.
Suppress prison riot
Prison riot
A prison riot is an act of concerted defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against the prison administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners in attempt to force change or express a grievance....

s
Support civil police in combat
Providing superior assault firepower in certain situations
Armed patrols
Special missions in swamps or mountainous terrains such as reconnaissance, planning and infiltration
Engage in combat serving state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...

sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
Crime suppression.
Resolving high-risk situations with a minimum loss of life, injury, or property damage.
Engage strongly armed criminal factions

Weapons and vehicles

The force has a fleet of Armoured fighting vehicle

Armoured fighting vehicle

An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and armed with weapons. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked....

s, which are known as "Pacificador" ("Peacemaker"), or "Caveirão" ("Big Skull") and one UH-1 Huey. These vehicles are used in operations in the slums (favelas) where BOPE faces intense conflicts with heavily armed drug dealers. BOPE also operates a wheel loader in order to remove obstacles, barricade

Barricade

Barricade, from the French barrique , is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction...

s and street blockades. BOPE soldiers are equipped with heavy armament:

M16 rifle
M16 rifle
The M16 is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for both semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 fires the 5.56×45mm NATO...
M4 carbine
M4 carbine
The M4 carbine is a family of firearms tracing its lineage back to earlier carbine versions of the M16, all based on the original AR-15 designed by Eugene Stoner and made by ArmaLite. It is a shorter and lighter variant of the M16A2 assault rifle, with 80% parts commonality.It is a gas-operated,...
ASTRA StG4 Commando
H&K PSG1 sniper rifle
Heckler & Koch PSG1
The PSG1 is a semi-automatic rifle designed by the German company Heckler & Koch of Oberndorf am Neckar.-Development:...
Benelli M3 shotgun
Benelli M3
The Benelli M3 is a dual-mode shotgun designed and manufactured by Italian firearms manufacturer Benelli. The M3 holds a maximum of seven rounds and uses the proprietary Benelli semi-automatic system first showcased in the M1. The M3 is notable for allowing the user the choice of semi-automatic...
FN P90
FN P90
The FN P90 is a selective fire personal defense weapon designed and manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium. The P90's name is taken from 1990, the year it was introduced...
IMBEL MD97
IMBEL MD97
THe IMBEL MD97 is an assault rifle intended for use in Brazil's Army, Special Forces, and domestic police forces.- History :The MD97 is a Brazilian selective-fire or semi-automatic assault rifle that has been produced by IMBEL in Brazil since 1997...
H&K MP5
Heckler & Koch MP5
The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a 9mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH of Oberndorf am Neckar....

A2 and K
H&K G3
H&K 21
Taurus PT92
Taurus PT92
The Taurus PT92 is a double action/single action, 9x19mm Parabellum, double-stack magazine, semi-automatic, short recoil action pistol manufactured by Taurus in the former Beretta factory in São Paulo, Brazil....
IMBEL
IMBEL
IMBEL is an acronym for Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil a Brazilian state company, founded in 1975 as a quango of the Ministry of Defence....

9mm
Frag grenades
FN FAL
FN FAL
The Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a self-loading, selective fire battle rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal . During the Cold War it was adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, with the notable exception of the United States...
FN PARAFAL
ParaFAL
The ParaFAL 7,62mm M964 A1 MD1 is a 7.62x51mm battle rifle which is a lighter-weight modification of the 30-year-old Brazilian-licensed and built FAL. Existing FALs can be converted to the more modern ParaFAL specification by the Brazilian company IMBEL with a low-cost kit of parts...

BOPE's main battle rifle

Tropa de Elite

In 2006, the book Elite da Tropa
Elite da Tropa
Elite da Tropa is a Brazilian book written by the ex-police officers André Batista and Rodrigo Pimentel together with Luiz Eduardo Soares. It was first published on 2006.The film Tropa de Elite was based on this book.-Synopsis:...

was published. Written by sociologist

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

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

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

attempt by some police officers on then-governor Leonel Brizola

Leonel Brizola

Leonel de Moura Brizola was a Brazilian politician. Launched in politics by Getúlio Vargas, Brizola was the only politician to serve as governor of two different states in the whole history of Brazil. In 1959 he was elected governor of Rio Grande do Sul, and in 1982 and 1990 he was elected...

. The book was controversial at the time of release, and reportedly resulted in Batista being reprimanded and censured

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

by the Military Police.
The book has been made into a movie, Tropa de Elite
Tropa de Elite
The Elite Squad is a 2007 Brazilian film directed by José Padilha. The film is a semi-fictional account of the BOPE , the Special Police Operations Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police. It is the second feature film and first fiction film of Padilha, who had previously directed the...

(Elite Squad), directed by José Padilha

José Padilha

José Padilha is an award-winning Brazilian film director and producer.Padilha emerged onto the Brazilian movie scene with his first feature film Bus 174. In 2007, Padilha directed The Elite Squad , his first fictional film. The film was a commercial and critical success, seen by more than 11...

(the director of Bus 174

Bus 174

Bus 174 is a Brazilian documentary film released on October 22, 2002. It is the debut film of director José Padilha and co-director Felipe Lacerda. Sandro do Nascimento, a young man from a poor background, bungled a robbery and ended up holding the passengers on a bus hostage for four hours. The...

), with a screenplay by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani

Bráulio Mantovani

Bráulio Mantovani is a Brazilian screenwriter.Graduated in Portuguese Language and Literature by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, he began his career writing professionally for theatre groups in 1987...

. In 2010 the movie gained a sequel, The Elite Squad 2
The Elite Squad 2
Elite Squad 2 is a 2010 Brazilian film directed and produced by José Padilha, starring Wagner Moura. It is a sequel of the 2007 film The Elite Squad...

.

Criticism

In 2005, the report on extra judicial executions of the New York University School of Law

New York University School of Law

The New York University School of Law is the law school of New York University. Established in 1835, the school offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law, and is located in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....

indicated that BOPE was involved in the assassination of 4 teenagers on pretext they were drug traffickers that resisted 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 the victims. None of them had any previous history of criminal activity. »

Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

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 », and attributes a certain number of killed civilians to BOPE in particular.
In March 2006, Amnesty International

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.

Other BOPE's

The Military Police of Alagoas and Santa Catarina also call their large tactical units BOPE, while the military police of the Federal District and the State of Piauí call theirs the Batalhão de Operações Especiais or BOE.

External links

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