Brazilian authorities confirmed a large-scale police operation targeting drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro resulted in at least 119 deaths, making it the deadliest police action in the country’s history. Residents of the area where the incident occurred lined the streets with dozens of bodies on Wednesday (October 29), protesting against the violence in a shocking display.
The operation was launched earlier this week, aiming to control the drug trade of the “Red Command” gang in multiple slums. The plan, in preparation for over two months, involved luring suspects into the forest with tactics and then ambushing them with the special police force. Authorities described it as the largest anti-drug operation in the state’s history.
Victor Santos, the security chief of Rio de Janeiro state, admitted during a press conference, “The high lethality of this operation was expected, but it was not the result we hoped for.” The police confirmed 119 deaths, including four officers. The public defense organization stated that the final death toll may exceed 132. At the same time, police arrested 113 suspects and seized 118 firearms.
Governor Claudio Castro defended the operation, insisting that all the deceased were armed criminals, describing the operation as a fight against “drug terrorism.”
The incident took place in the Penha favela in the northern region of Rio. Local residents carried bodies out of the woods throughout the night, with at least 70 bodies lined up on the main road. In the afternoon, hundreds of residents rode motorcycles to the state government building to protest, waving Brazilian flags stained with red handprints, condemning police violence.
Human rights lawyer Guilherme Pimentel pointed out that many bodies showed signs of “being bound, stabbed, and shot at close range,” indicating executions, with “multiple families reporting signs of torture on the victims.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement stating that the massacre continued the trend of excessive police violence in marginalized communities in Brazil, urging authorities to swiftly and effectively investigate in accordance with international human rights law.
Brazil’s Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski revealed that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was not informed of the operation details beforehand and was “extremely shocked.” He emphasized plans to meet with the Rio state government and consider deploying federal security personnel.
Upon returning to Brasília from a visit to Malaysia on Tuesday, Lula immediately convened an emergency cabinet meeting with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and several ministers to discuss future strategies.
As the bloodshed unfolded, Rio was preparing to host several global conferences related to the United Nations Climate Summit (COP30) next week, including the C40 Mayor’s Climate Summit and the Earthshot Prize ceremony hosted by Prince William of the United Kingdom.
This incident is considered the most serious police action in Rio’s history. In a raid in the Jacarezinho favela in 2021, a total of 28 people died. In an earlier incident in 1992 during the suppression of a riot at the Carandiru prison in São Paulo, 111 inmates lost their lives.
(Reference: Reuters)