Overview
- Security forces launched a daylong operation across the 26 favelas of the Alemão and Penha complexes on Tuesday, triggering prolonged gunbattles.
- More than 2,500 agents were deployed with a mandate to detain about 100 suspected traffickers, resulting in 81 arrests, according to authorities.
- Police reported that gunmen hijacked and burned buses to form barricades and used drones to drop small explosives to slow the advance.
- Four police officers are among the dead, with additional officers and bystanders wounded during the clashes.
- City services were heavily disrupted, with 45 schools closed and clinics suspended, while authorities reported seizing 75 assault rifles as the governor labeled the situation a “war” and Brasília declined to invoke an army deployment, opting instead for talks with the justice minister on Wednesday.