🔗 Share this article

The eyewitness

An eyewitness who witnessed the consequences of a large-scale security raid in the metropolitan area has reported how residents came back with badly injured victims of those who had died.

The victims "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. The total contained those of police officers.

A particular victim was found without a head - others were "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed evidence of stab wounds.

More than 120 people were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness explained that residents first notified him to the raid in the early hours by residents from the Alemão area, who reached out alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were coming in.

The photographer stated that law enforcement blocked media personnel from accessing the operation zone, where the operation was under way.

"Security forces established a perimeter and announced: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who grew up in the community, stated he succeeded to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he remained through the night.

He reported during the night, community members started looking the hillside that separates the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for family members who had been missing following the security action.

Residents living in Penha organized the located casualties in a square - and Itan's photos reveal the reaction of those present.

"The harsh reality of what occurred shook me a lot: the grief of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, crying, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

The photographer

The official of the region announced that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 security personnel was aimed at halting a criminal group referred to as Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

Initially, local officials claimed that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives during the action.

They have since said that initial estimates shows that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the final tally of people killed at 132.

According to researchers, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has been able to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs nationally, together with another major gang, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has long reported on crime in Rio over many years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and acting as "operational allies".

The criminal group engages primarily in illegal drug trade, but also smuggles guns, gold, energy resources, beverages cigarettes.

According to the authorities, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of Rio state, the government representative, characterized organization participants as drug terrorists and described the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

But the number of people killed in the operation has received condemnation from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "appalled".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the state leader supported law enforcement.

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He further explained that the situation intensified because the suspects fought back: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The official additionally stated that the casualties displayed by locals in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post on online platforms, he asserted that particular individuals had been taken of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation to security forces".

A law enforcement representative from the police department additionally stated that military attire, vests, and firearms" were stripped from the victims and presented video seemingly depicting a man stripping military attire {off a corpse