Rio state’s Governor Claudio Castro put the death toll at around 60 on Wednesday, but warned that the real figure was likely higher.
At least 119 people were killed in Tuesday’s bloody police raids on drug traffickers in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, according to local police officials, nearly doubling the earlier toll of 60.
Among those killed in the military-style operation targeting Rio’s most powerful criminal organisation, the Comando Vermelho, were 115 gang suspects and four police officers, the police officials announced Wednesday.
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Rio de Janeiro’s state public defender’s office put the death toll even higher at 132.
“The elevated lethality of the operation was expected but not desired,” Victor Santos, head of security for Rio state, said at a news conference Wednesday.
‘Massacre’
The raids, involving some 2,500 police officers, were concentrated in northern Rio’s neighbourhoods of Penha Complex and the Alemao Complex.
Some angry residents accused police of summary killings, while mourners gathered in the streets where bodies were laid.
“The state came to massacre, it wasn’t a [police] operation. They came directly to kill, to take lives,” one woman in Penha Complex told the AFP news agency.
“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,” said 36-year-old resident and activist Raul Santiago.
Brazil’s Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is “horrified” by the scale of fatalities and surprised that such an operation went ahead without prior knowledge of the federal government.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also conveyed concern over the high death toll. “He stresses that the use of force in police operations must adhere to international human rights law and standards, and urges the authorities to undertake a prompt investigation,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
A mourner kisses a covered body, the day after a deadly police operation against drug trafficking at the favela do Penha, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 29 [Ricardo Moraes/Reuters]
Rio state Governor Claudio Castro insisted those slain in the operation were all criminals, claiming the clashes largely took place in a wooded area where civilians were unlikely to be. “I don’t think anyone would be walking in the forest on the day of the conflict,” he told reporters. “The only real victims were the police officers.”
‘Not ordinary crime’
The huge police force engaged in the operation was bolstered by armoured vehicles, helicopters and drones.
The police and suspected gang members exchanged heavy gunfire, with authorities accusing suspects of barricading in buses and deploying explosive-laden drones to attack police.
“This is not ordinary crime, but narcoterrorism,” Castro wrote Tuesday on X, where he shared a video from the fighting.
Police raids against criminal organisations are not uncommon in Brazil’s favelas, and many turn deadly. In 2024, approximately 700 people died during police operations in Rio, a rate of almost two a day.
But rights groups have questioned the timing of such large-scale police operations in Brazil, which are not uncommon before major international events.
Next week, Rio de Janeiro will host the C40 World Mayors Summit and Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, awarded for environmental achievements.
Later on, Brazil is expected to welcome world leaders for the United Nations climate summit, COP30, in the Amazonian city of Belem, starting November 10.
Santos said the latest raid has no connection to the upcoming global events.
