{"id":339493,"date":"2025-10-29T00:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T00:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339493\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T00:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T00:06:12","slug":"brazilian-police-raid-gang-in-rio-leaving-at-least-64-people-dead-and-81-under-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339493\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazilian police raid gang in Rio, leaving at least 64 people dead and 81 under arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) \u2014 About 2,500 Brazilian<\/a> police and soldiers launched a massive raid on a drug-trafficking gang in Rio de Janeiro<\/a> on Tuesday, arresting 81 suspects and sparking shootouts that left at least 60 suspects and four police officers dead, officials said. <\/p>\n

The operation included officers in helicopters and armored vehicles and targeted the notorious Red Command in the sprawling low-income favelas of Complexo de Alemao and Penha, police said. <\/p>\n

The police operation was one of the most violent in Brazil\u2019s recent history, with human rights organizations calling for investigations into the deaths. <\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s state Gov. Claudio Castro said in a video posted on X that 60 criminal suspects were \u201cneutralized\u201d during the massive raid that he called the biggest such operation in the city\u2019s history. Some 81 suspects were arrested, while 93 rifles and more than half a ton of drugs were seized, the state government said, adding that those killed \u201cresisted police action.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s civil police said on X that four officers died in Tuesday\u2019s operation. \u201cThe cowardly attacks by criminals against our agents will not go unpunished,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

An unknown number of people were wounded. <\/p>\n

The United Nations\u2019 human rights body said it was \u201chorrified\u201d by the deadly police operation, called for effective investigations and reminded authorities of their obligations under international human rights law.<\/p>\n

C\u00e9sar Mu\u00f1oz, director of Human Rights Watch in Brazil, called Tuesday\u2019s events \u201ca huge tragedy\u201d and a \u201cdisaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public prosecutor\u2019s office must open its own investigations and clarify the circumstances of each death,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Footage on social media showed fire and smoke rising from the two favelas as gunfire rang out. The city\u2019s Education Department said 46 schools across the two neighborhoods were closed, and the nearby Federal University of Rio de Janeiro canceled night classes and told people on campus to seek shelter. <\/p>\n

Suspected gang members blocked roads in northern and southeastern Rio in response to the raid, local media reported. At least 70 buses were commandeered to be used in the blockades, causing significant damage, the city\u2019s bus organization Rio Onibus said.<\/p>\n

The operation Tuesday followed a year of investigation into the criminal group, police said. <\/p>\n

Gov. Castro, from the conservative opposition Liberal Party, said the federal government should be providing more support to combat crime \u2014 a swipe at the administration of leftist President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Gleisi Hoffmann, the Lula administration\u2019s liaison with the parliament, agreed that coordinated action was needed but pointed to a recent crackdown on money laundering<\/a> as an example of the federal government\u2019s action on organized crime. <\/p>\n

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and a number of ministers met in response to the operation on Tuesday afternoon. Chief of Staff Rui Costa requested an emergency meeting in Rio on Wednesday, with him in attendance as well as Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.<\/p>\n

Emerging from Rio\u2019s prisons, the Red Command criminal gang has expanded its control in favelas in recent years.<\/p>\n

Rio has been the scene of lethal police raids for decades. In March 2005, some 29 people were killed in Rio\u2019s Baixada Fluminense region, while in May 2021, 28 were killed in the Jacarezinho favela.<\/p>\n

While the Tuesday\u2019s police operation was similar to previous ones, its scale was unprecedented, said Luis Flavio Sapori, a sociologist and public safety expert at Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s different about today\u2019s operation is the magnitude of the victims. These are war numbers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He argued that these kinds of operations are inefficient because they do not tend to catch the masterminds, but rather target underlings who can later be replaced. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough to go in, exchange gunfire, and leave. There\u2019s a lack of strategy in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s public security policy,\u201d Sapori said. \u201cSome lower-ranking members of these factions are killed, but those individuals are quickly replaced by others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marielle Franco Institute, a nonprofit founded by the slain councilwoman<\/a> \u2019s family to continue her legacy of fighting for the rights of people living in favelas, also criticized the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a public safety policy. It\u2019s a policy of extermination, that makes the everyday life of Black and poor people a Russian roulette,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) \u2014 About 2,500 Brazilian police and soldiers launched a massive raid on a drug-trafficking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":339494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3881,4214,19207,1613,167437,167434,32874,20228,57,4221,118,1612,2936,167435,4215,50,34163,167436,34821,167438,4217,1206,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-339493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-brazil","10":"tag-brazil-government","11":"tag-central-america","12":"tag-claudio-castro","13":"tag-csar-muoz","14":"tag-drug-cartels","15":"tag-drug-crimes","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-homicide","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-latin-america","20":"tag-law-enforcement","21":"tag-luis-flavio-sapori","22":"tag-luiz-incio-lula-da-silva","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-organized-crime","25":"tag-ricardo-lewandowski","26":"tag-rio-de-janeiro","27":"tag-rui-costa","28":"tag-south-america","29":"tag-united-nations","30":"tag-world","31":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115454540825250785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}