At least 64 people have been killed after police in Rio de Janeiro carried out a deadly raid days before the city hosts events linked to COP30.
Officers targeted alleged drug kingpins in the Comando Vermelho gang and their money-laundering operations on Tuesday, leading to clashes so severe that health services, schools and transport were disrupted.
They arrested 81 people and issued 250 warrants during the operation involving 2,500 security personnel across the Alemao and Penha favela, or slums, near the city’s international airport.
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The number of dead, including four police officers, was confirmed by the city’s governor, Claudio Castro, and is more than twice Rio’s previous most deadly police operation.
Governor Castro said on social media: “We stand firm confronting narcoterrorism.”
Bursts of gunfire could be heard across the area from early in the day and smoke appeared above the city as gang members burned cars to slow the progress of armoured police vehicles.
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Suspects used drones armed with grenades against them, according to videos released by police.
After the most intense fighting died away, a special operations unit was seen rounding up dozens of shirtless men, while sobbing family members gathered at a public hospital treating the injured.
The Rio state government called Tuesday’s operation the largest ever targeting the Comando Vermelho gang.
Brazil’s Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said the federal government had not been asked to help what he described as a “bloody” operation.
Dozens of schools, medical facilities and bus services were impacted as traffic became clogged across several neighborhoods.
However, some civil society groups criticised the heavy casualties in a military-style operation, including Carolina Ricardo, executive director of the security think tank Sou da Paz, who called it a tragedy.
“This is a completely failed approach, because it does not actually target the links in the drug production chain,” she said.
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Rio hosts the C40 summit, a global summit of mayors tackling climate change and Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, featuring Kylie Minogue and Sebastian Vettel, next week.
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It is part of the build-up to next month’s COP30, the UN climate summit taking place in the Amazon city of Belem.
Police have often conducted large-scale operations against criminal groups ahead of major events in Rio, which hosted the 2016 Olympics, the 2024 G20 summit and the BRICS summit in July.
