Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva mentioned Tuesday that the police operation towards a robust prison faction in Rio that left 121 lifeless was “a bloodbath.”
“There was a bloodbath, and I feel it is necessary to confirm the situations underneath which it occurred,” Lula mentioned within the Amazon metropolis of Belem throughout an interview with worldwide information businesses, together with AFP.
The police raid final week towards the Pink Command drug trafficking gang noticed 1000’s of officers battle closely armed males wearing camouflage, who dropped explosives on police from drones.
“Drones dropping bombs is now a development utilized by closely armed prison teams,” Carlos Photo voltaic from the Royal United Providers Institute instructed BBC Information.
Rafael Soares, a journalist masking crime in Rio, instructed BBC Information Brasil final week that the Pink Command had been on the offensive in Rio lately, reclaiming territory it had misplaced to its rivals, First Capital Command.
Police footage launched by native media reveals members of the gang gearing up for the struggle, with dozens streaming right into a forested space the place they clashed with elite safety forces, and the place lots of the our bodies have been discovered the subsequent day. BBC Information verified a number of movies displaying dozens of our bodies specified by a row in a market space of Rio, in its northern Penha district.
PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP through Getty Pictures
The battle uncovered Rio de Janeiro’s continual safety woes and divisions on find out how to deal with them.
Whereas rights activists have denounced harrowing scenes of lifeless our bodies lined up on the street, surveys confirmed lots of the metropolis’s crime-weary residents supported the operation.
Felipe Curi, the pinnacle of Rio’s Civil Police pressure instructed reporters Friday that police had to date recognized the our bodies of 99 “criminals” among the many lifeless — 42 of them topic to arrest warrants and 78 with in depth prison data.
Amid criticism that his administration is just too lenient on crime, Lula mentioned on X Friday that he had submitted a invoice to parliament proposing a minimal 30-year jail sentence for gang members.
Silvia Izquierdo / AP 
A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of the operation instructed the BBC of how residents got here again with mutilated our bodies of those that had died.
The our bodies “saved coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45,” Bruno Itan instructed BBC Brasil. He mentioned the our bodies included these of law enforcement officials.
One of many our bodies had been decapitated — others have been “completely disfigured,” Itan mentioned. Many additionally had what he says have been stab wounds.
