🔗 Share this article

The eyewitness

An eyewitness who witnessed the results of a large-scale law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how community members came back with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness reported. They included law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he reported. Numerous victims displayed evidence of stab wounds.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness stated that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by residents living in Alemão, who contacted him informing him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness made his way to a local medical facility, where the victims were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement prevented journalists from accessing the operation zone, where the security measures was under way.

"Security forces established a perimeter and declared: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, stated he managed to make his way past the security perimeter, where he stayed until dawn.

He described that evening, local residents began to search the elevated terrain which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for family members who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area arranged the discovered victims in a public space - the documented evidence reveal the emotions of those present.

"The brutality of what occurred affected me a lot: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, pregnant wives, crying, angry family members," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The state leader of the state announced that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 security personnel was designed to halting a criminal group known as Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

Originally, local officials stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed in the raid.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the final tally of casualties at 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to increase its control across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in Brazil, alongside another major gang, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

Based on Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city over many years, Red Command "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and acting as "operational allies".

The criminal group engages primarily in narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking guns, precious metals, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members have substantial firearms and officials reported that during the raid, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The state leader of the region, the political leader, characterized organization participants as criminal extremists and described the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

But the number of fatalities in the security action has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "horrified".

During a press briefing the following day, the state leader justified security actions.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He further explained that the situation had escalated because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the counterattack they carried out and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The governor further reported that the casualties shown by residents in the neighborhood had been "manipulated".

In a post through digital channels, he claimed that certain victims had been taken of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation to security forces".

A police official representing security forces further reported that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and weapons" were taken away from the casualties and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a man stripping military attire {off a corpse