🔗 Share this article

The eyewitness

A photographer who documented the aftermath of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has reported how residents brought back badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness stated. They included law enforcement personnel.

One individual was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he said. Numerous victims displayed evidence of knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that residents first notified him to the raid Tuesday morning by local people living in Alemão, who sent him messages alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the victims were coming in.

The photographer stated that law enforcement blocked media personnel from accessing the affected area, where the security measures were taking place.

"Security forces established a perimeter and announced: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he managed to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until dawn.

He described that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the elevated terrain which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Local people from the Penha area organized the discovered victims in a square - the photographer's images display the reaction of those present.

"The brutality of it all impacted me profoundly: the grief of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

The photographer

The official of Rio state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 security personnel was intended to halting a gang known as Red Command from growing their influence.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the operation.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 individuals have been killed.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the overall count of casualties to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has succeeded to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, in company with First Capital Command, with a background spanning over five decades.

Based on Brazilian journalist a specialist, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "commercial associates".

The gang engages primarily in drug trafficking, additionally trafficking firearms, valuable minerals, fuel, liquor cigarettes.

Based on official reports, organization members have substantial firearms and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the region, the political leader, labeled gang affiliates as criminal extremists and referred to the security forces fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

However, the count of fatalities during the raid has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities saying it was "shocked".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the official justified security actions.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.

He added that the events worsened as the individuals had retaliated: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The governor additionally stated that the bodies shown by residents in the area were "altered".

Through a message through digital channels, he claimed that particular individuals had been removed of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A police official of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" had been removed from the victims and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse