The federal government dismissed the executive director of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), Jean Coelho, and the PRF intelligence director Allan da Mota Rebello, in ordinances published on Tuesday. The layoffs come days after PRF agents killed a man in a makeshift “gas chamber” in the state of Sergipe and took part in an operation in a Rio de Janeiro favela that left at least 23 dead.
Officially, the dismissals have nothing to do with these cases, which have caused a big commotion. The two men had already been nominated on May 17 for a two-year stint in the U.S. They will serve at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, an academic institution that prepares officers for leadership roles.
The representative of the UN Human Rights Office for South America, Jan Jarab, said that the recurrence of cases of police brutality is “worrying.” The institution is being called upon to reinstate human rights disciplines for agents to avoid new cases.
On Monday, President Jair Bolsonaro said that he “very much regrets what happened,” but added that it is not possible to “generalize everything that happens in Brazil.”
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