Brazil police, soldiers kill 60 in Rio’s biggest anti-gang raid, arrest 81 suspects

About 2,500 police officers and soldiers stormed several Rio de Janeiro favelas on Tuesday in one of Brazil’s largest-ever anti-gang raids, arresting 81 suspects and leaving at least 60 people dead, officials said.

The coordinated operation targeted the Red Command, one of the country’s most powerful drug-trafficking groups, across the sprawling low-income neighborhoods of Complexo do Alemo and Penha. Helicopters circled overhead as armored vehicles rolled through narrow alleys, sparking hours of gunfire.

The police operation was one of the most violent in Brazil’s recent history, with at least one human rights organization calling for an investigation into each death.

Rio’s Governor Claudio Castro said in a video posted on X that 60 criminal suspects were “neutralized” and 81 arrested. Police seized 75 rifles and a large quantity of drugs in what he called “the biggest operation in Rio’s history.”

CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION

Human rights groups condemned the bloodshed and demanded accountability. Csar Muoz, Human Rights Watch’s Brazil director, called the violence “a huge tragedy” and “a disaster”. “The public prosecutor’s office must open its own investigations and clarify the circumstances of each death,” Muoz said.

Footage shared on social media showed plumes of smoke and bursts of gunfire over the densely populated neighborhoods. Authorities closed 46 schools, and the nearby Federal University of Rio de Janeiro cancelled evening classes, urging students to stay indoors, according to Associated Press.

Suspected gang members retaliated by blocking major roads in northern and southeastern Rio, seizing at least 50 buses to barricade streets, according to the city’s bus operators’ association, Rio nibus.

A YEAR IN PLANNING, DECADES IN PATTERN

Police said Tuesday’s raid followed a year-long investigation into the Red Command. The criminal group, which grew out of Rio’s prisons, has steadily expanded its control in the city’s favelas.

Governor Castro, from the conservative Liberal Party, took aim at President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva’s administration, saying the federal government had failed to support local anti-crime efforts. In response, Gleisi Hoffmann, a senior Lula aide, defended federal action, citing recent money-laundering crackdowns targeting organized crime networks.

Rio has been the scene of lethal police raids for decades. In March 2005, some 29 people were killed in Rio’s Baixada Fluminense region, while in May 2021, 28 were killed in the Jacarezinho favela.

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With inputs from Associated Press