The governor of Rio de Janeiro called Brazil's deadliest police raid in history a success, but none of the 117 killed by police were among the 69 suspects named by prosecutors in the lawsuit that prompted the raid, UNN reports with reference to Reuters.
Details
According to a Reuters review of the full police report on the operation, provided to Brazil's Supreme Court, only five of those mentioned in the lawsuit were arrested that day, and none of them were high-ranking leaders of the notorious "Comando Vermelho" gang.
The raid, known as "Operation Containment," resulted in 121 deaths, including four police officers and two teenagers, and 99 suspects were taken into custody.
The raid also failed to arrest or kill the leaders of the "Comando Vermelho" gang, which investigators say is based in the areas where the raid took place. The gang's main leader, Edgar Alves de Andrade, known as Doca, remains at large.
According to a police report exclusively seen by Reuters, one of the gang's mid-level leaders was arrested without a single shot being fired.
The findings of the investigation contradict the official version of the operation, which took place in two densely populated working-class neighborhoods, known as favelas, in the north of the state capital. After the operation, local residents laid dozens of bodies in the streets.
Addendum
The operation, conducted a week before the arrival of world leaders for the UN climate summit (COP-30), pitted left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who called it a disaster, against conservatives, who call it a model for fighting organized crime.
Rio's Public Security Secretary Victor dos Santos, who is in charge of the police, confirmed to Reuters that the raid's goal was to arrest the accused. However, he added, "it was not easy to find 69 people among the 280,000" living in the favelas.
Although, according to investigation documents, 19 of those killed had no prior criminal record, Santos stated that he was 100% sure of their affiliation with a criminal group.
He argued that the number of killed and arrested shows that "the picture is much worse than the investigation showed." He also announced that other raids are planned in Rio's favelas in the coming months.
However, the initial results of the raid drew criticism from victims' families and human rights activists, who argued that the police killed indiscriminately instead of pursuing clear targets based on years of investigation into the activities of the "Comando Vermelho" gang, one of Brazil's largest and most brutal.
Bodies line Rio street: death toll from police raids rises to 13229.10.25, 18:23