🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of a massive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has reported how community members returned with mutilated bodies of the deceased individuals.

The victims "kept piling up: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness reported. Among them were those of police officers.

One individual was discovered headless - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Several bodies showed evidence of stab wounds.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness stated that he initially learned about the operation early on Tuesday by residents from the Alemão area, who sent him messages alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter went to the healthcare center, where the bodies were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement blocked media personnel from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the operation were taking place.

"Police officers established a perimeter and announced: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in the area, stated he succeeded to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until dawn.

He reported that evening, local residents began to search the elevated terrain that borders the community of Penha and the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Community members living in Penha proceeded to place the located casualties in a square - the documented evidence reveal the response of the people there.

"The brutality of what occurred impacted me deeply: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, pregnant wives, weeping, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The governor of the region stated that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 security personnel was intended to stopping a gang known as Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

At first, state authorities maintained that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" were fatally injured in the raid.

Authorities later reported that early calculations shows that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has estimated the final tally of fatalities at 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang represents the unique criminal entity which in recent years has been able to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, in company with another major gang, with a background spanning over five decades.

Based on correspondent a specialist, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city for years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and acting as "commercial associates".

The organization engages primarily in drug trafficking, while also dealing in weapons, gold, fuel, beverages and tobacco.

According to the authorities, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that throughout the operation, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The official of the state, the political leader, labeled organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the security forces who died during the operation as "heroes".

However, the count of casualties in the operation has received condemnation from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "shocked".

During a press briefing the next day, Governor Castro justified security actions.

"There was no objective to kill anyone. We wanted to detain everyone safely," he stated.

He continued that the events had escalated due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they implemented and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

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

Through a message on online platforms, he claimed that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and firearms" were stripped from the bodies and showed footage apparently demonstrating a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse