Rio Streets, at least 132 people died in Brazil’s deadliest police operation, officials said Wednesday, and images of Rio de Janeiro residents lining a street with dozens of bodies they had collected overnight have raised alarms a week before global climate events take place in the city.
The total from the Rio public defender’s office was more than double the death toll issued on Tuesday, when state authorities said there were at least 64 dead, among them four police officers. The raids were aimed at a powerful drug gang, the state government said.
Rio’s governor, Claudio Castro, said the initial count had included only bodies processed in the public morgue.
Many of the corpses had been collected by Penha residents who were seeking lost relatives in a forested area behind their neighborhood, people at the scene said, where more than 70 bodies lined the middle of the street.
“All I want to do is take my son out of this place and bury him,” said Taua Brito, the mother of one of those who were killed, as mourning relatives and onlookers wept on both sides of a long row of bodies, some covered with sheets or bags.
The governor, Castro, said he was sure that those killed in the operation were criminals since the majority of the gunfire erupted in a wooded zone. “I don’t think anyone will be walking in the forest on the day of confrontation,” he told reporters.
“The cops were the only real victims,” he said. The police operation had come just days before Rio streets was to host global events tied to the United Nations climate summit known as COP30, including the C40 global summit of mayors combating climate change and British Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.
Over the last decade, Rio streets has been home to a series of global events like the 2016 Olympics, the supersonic G-20 summit in 2024, and a BRICS meeting in July — though none have seen violence so widespread as Tuesday.
Inger Christensen About 3,100 Army troops in army uniform and white helmets rolled into six favelas starting at 4 a.m. About three hours later, I’m told the raids are a response to escalating violence since Easter in one of the largest urban areas of Rio streets — against one of the city’s most powerful narco gangs that use such settlements for a home base.
The raids have been unmentioned by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who arrived in Brasilia late Tuesday from a visit to Malaysia.
On Wednesday, he met with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and some cabinet members to discuss it, his office said. Lula’s justice minister said on Tuesday that the government had not yet been asked for assistance by state authorities.
A military-style raid that resulted in many casualties was condemned by a number of civil society groups. The UN Human Rights office said it is another example of the severe, deadly impact of police operations in Brazil’s poor neighborhoods.
“We remind authorities of their obligations under international human rights law, and call for prompt and effective investigations,” it said in a statement.
