🔗 Share this article

The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the aftermath of a massive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has described how community members came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness stated. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were "severely damaged", he said. Several bodies showed evidence of knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were killed during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness reported that residents first notified him about the operation Tuesday morning by residents from the Alemão area, who reached out telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer traveled to a local medical facility, where the victims were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that security forces prevented journalists from accessing the operation zone, where the security measures were occurring.

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and announced: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who grew up in the community, reported he succeeded to make his way past the security perimeter, where he continued until the next morning.

He explained during the night, community members started looking the elevated terrain that borders Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones who had been missing since the police raid.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the located casualties in an open area - the documented evidence display the response of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation affected me deeply: the sorrow of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, crying, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The governor of Rio state stated that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 officers was aimed at stopping a criminal group known as Red Command from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials maintained that sixty individuals and four police officers" lost their lives in the operation.

They have since said that early calculations suggests that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the final tally of people killed to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has been able to make territorial gains across the region.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction nationally, in company with another major gang, with a background spanning over five decades.

Per correspondent an expert, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio for years, the criminal organization "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and acting as "commercial associates".

The organization concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking guns, valuable minerals, fuel, beverages smoking products.

According to the authorities, criminal affiliates have substantial firearms and police said that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of the state, the government representative, labeled Red Command members as drug terrorists and described the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

But the number of casualties in the operation has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "appalled".

At a news conference the following day, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he said.

He added that the situation had escalated due to the alleged criminals fought back: "It occurred of the resistance they executed and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The state leader also said that the bodies displayed by locals in the area had been "tampered with".

In a post on online platforms, he claimed that certain victims had been taken of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A law enforcement representative from the police department also said that "camouflage clothing, vests, and weapons" were stripped from the casualties and presented video apparently demonstrating a man stripping military attire {off a corpse