No less than 60 individuals, together with 4 law enforcement officials, have been killed in a regulation enforcement operation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in line with native media studies.
On Tuesday, the Brazilian information outlet G1 stated the dying toll had risen to 64, although the federal government has but to formally verify the quantity.
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The raid, designed to crack down on drug trafficking within the north of town, has develop into the only most deadly police operations in native historical past.
Officers have defined that the violence was a part of an effort in opposition to drug trafficking and organised crime known as Operation Containment.
The gang Comando Vermelho, also called the Purple Command, was named as one of many main targets. The state authorities described the operation as the biggest ever concentrating on the group.
“The operation goals to fight the territorial enlargement of the Comando Vermelho and seize prison leaders from Rio de Janeiro and different states,” Governor Claudio Castro wrote on the social media platform X.
Castro defined that as many as 2,500 officers took half in Tuesday’s police raid, some outfitted with armoured autos and helicopters.
The initiative centred on the Alemao and Penha favela complexes — low-income, densely populated neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
Footage that Castro shared on-line confirmed armoured autos patrolling the streets and rows of suspects handcuffed on the bottom.
No less than 56 individuals have been arrested, as authorities sought to serve 250 arrest and search warrants.
However gunfire broke out because the operation was underneath approach, resulting in dozens killed and injured, in addition to highway closures. Preliminary studies point out stray bullets might have struck bystanders.
Comando Vermelho is taken into account the principle drug-trafficking organisation in Rio de Janeiro, and it holds energy in a number of the metropolis’s poorer neighbourhoods.
However different prison organisations have additionally exerted important sway all through the state.
“ Sixty p.c of the territory of the state of Rio de Janeiro is both managed by drug gangs or by the militia, which have been formal policemen that determined to cost those that reside within the slums to pay them safety charges,” Al Jazeera correspondent Monica Yanakiew defined.
Within the Nineteen Eighties, Comando Vermelho emerged as a significant participant within the international cocaine commerce, collaborating with Colombian cartels and traffickers within the Amazon rainforest to distribute illicit narcotics.
Brazil ranks second globally — behind solely america — in gross cocaine consumption.
The nation documented greater than 180,000 incidents involving cocaine trafficking in 2023, ensuing within the seizure of almost 130,000 kilograms (286,600 kilos) of the drug, in line with authorities figures.
Police raids in opposition to prison organisations usually are not unusual in Brazil’s favelas, and lots of flip lethal. In 2024, roughly 700 individuals died throughout police operations in Rio, a fee of just about two a day.
One of many deadliest such raids got here in 2021, when armed police stormed the Jacarezinho favela, killing at least 25 people.
Al Jazeera obtained video and footage on the time that confirmed properties riddled with bullet holes and blood flowing via the favela streets.
Such scenes increase considerations about police violence and the efficacy of such raids.
Reporting from Rio de Janeiro, Yanakiew stated she had spoken to residents who have been upset by Tuesday’s bloodshed.
“ These are some kin of the those that have been taken right here which might be very indignant,” she stated, gesturing round her. “They are saying that there are some 20 our bodies up the hill, which they will’t take to the hospital.”
Yanakiew added that, with Brazil heading right into a nationwide election in 2026, the specter of prison violence and drug trafficking is anticipated to take centre stage.
Incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva introduced final week that he plans to run for re-election within the upcoming race, however he’s set to face sharp criticism from Brazil’s proper wing.
“ The federal government doesn’t need to take into account these prison gangs as terrorists, as the correct in Brazil needs,” Yanakiew defined. “ So that is an ongoing debate now.”
Human rights teams have additionally questioned the timing of such large-scale police operations in Brazil, which aren’t unusual earlier than main worldwide occasions.
Subsequent week, Rio de Janeiro will host the C40 World Mayors Summit and Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, awarded for environmental achievements.
Elsewhere, Brazil is anticipated to welcome world leaders for the United Nations local weather summit, COP30, within the Amazonian metropolis of Belem, beginning November 10.
