Rio de Janeiro’s public defender’s office said a total of 132 people died in the bloodiest police raid against drug gangs in the Brazilian city’s history, as grieving residents left dozens of corpses in the streets. “The latest update speaks of 132 deaths,” the Rio state public defender’s office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, told AFP. There was no immediate confirmation of the figure from other sources. THE
The governor of Rio state, Claudio Castro, put the death toll from Tuesday’s violence at around 60, but warned that the real figure was probably higher as more bodies were taken to the morgue, where the body count was being counted. Four police officers were killed during the military-style operation, which involved 2,500 officers fighting Rio’s most powerful criminal organization, the Comando Vermelho, or Red Command. In the Penha Complex, one of two densely populated working-class neighborhoods targeted in northern Rio, residents cried over a row of at least 50 corpses Wednesday morning. «The State intervened to massacre, it was not a (police) operation. They intervened directly to kill, to take lives,” a woman, who preferred not to reveal her name, told AFP as she touched the face of another victim. Authorities said “60 criminals” were killed in clashes during drug raids in the Penha Complex and Alemao Complex, located near Rio’s international airport.
Enraged residents accused the police of summary executions. “There are people who have been executed, many of them shot in the neck, in the back. This cannot be considered public safety,” said Raul Santiago, a 36-year-old resident and activist. Lawyer Albino Pereira Neto, who represents three families who lost relatives, told AFP that some bodies had “burn marks” and that some of the victims had been tied up. Some were “murdered at cold blood,” he added. The huge number of police officers who took part in the operation were supported by armored vehicles, helicopters and drones, while the streets of the favelas were transformed into scenes of war.