October 30, 2025 | 08:14 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The public defender’s office in Rio de Janeiro said on Wednesday that 132 people were killed in what has become the deadliest police raid in Brazil’s history, as grieving residents lined the streets with dozens of bodies.
“The latest update is 132 dead,” the state public defender’s office, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, said as quoted by Al Arabiya. The figure has not yet been independently verified.
Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro had earlier reported around 60 deaths, though he warned the toll could rise as more bodies were brought to the morgue.
The large-scale operation, carried out on Tuesday, targeted the Comando Vermelho (Red Command) drug gang and involved about 2,500 police officers, supported by armored vehicles, helicopters, and drones. Four officers were also killed in the clashes.
Authorities said the raid led to the arrest of 81 suspects and the seizure of 42 rifles and a large quantity of drugs. Security forces faced fierce resistance, including gunfire and grenades launched from drones, Castro said.
Bodies Line the Streets in Working-Class Neighborhoods
In Rio’s northern Penha Complex, one of the two densely populated neighborhoods targeted alongside the Alemao Complex, residents wept as at least 50 bodies lay in rows covered with makeshift shrouds.
A woman cried out while holding a victim’s body. Nearby, two young girls caressed the face of a dead man wrapped in a flower-patterned sheet.
“The state came to massacre, it wasn’t a (police) operation. They came directly to kill, to take lives,” said a woman who declined to be named.
Authorities claimed that 60 gang members died in the operation near Rio’s international airport, but residents accused the police of mass executions.
Claims of Extrajudicial Killings
Activist Raul Santiago, 36, said many victims appeared to have been executed.
“There are people who have been executed, many of them shot in the back of the head, shot in the back. This cannot be considered public safety,” he said.
Lawyer Albino Pereira Neto, who represents three bereaved families, said several bodies had burn marks and some appeared to have been tied up before being killed.
“Some were murdered in cold blood,” he alleged.
Videos shared on social media showed armored vehicles and heavy gunfire echoing through the narrow streets, with fires breaking out during the clashes. Police accused the gang of using a hijacked bus as a barricade and launching explosives from drones.
“This is not ordinary crime, but narcoterrorism,” Governor Castro wrote on X (formerly Twitter), posting footage of the operation.
UN, Rights Groups Condemn Violence
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called the operation “horrific” and urged an immediate, independent investigation into the deaths.
A delegation from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government is expected to travel to Rio for an emergency meeting with Governor Castro.
Human rights groups noted that police operations in Rio’s favelas are frequent and often deadly. Last year alone, nearly 700 people were killed in police raids across the state—almost two deaths per day.
“This favela was turned into a “theater of war and barbarism,” said Dani Monteiro, head of the Rio State Legislative Human Rights Commission, who said the body would demand explanations from authorities.
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