Overview
- Rio state authorities report at least 64 dead, including four police officers, and 81 arrests after a 2,500-strong raid targeting Comando Vermelho in the Penha and Alemão complexes.
- Residents recovered more than 50 additional bodies from the Vacaria area and, along with the Public Defender’s Office, cited 120–132 fatalities and alleged executions and torture.
- Governor Cláudio Castro defended the action as a defense of the state and said Rio needs military support, while community leaders and rights groups denounced the operation as a massacre.
- President Lula’s team held crisis meetings, stated the federal government was not asked to support the raid or issue a GLO, dispatched officials to Rio, and offered transfers to federal maximum-security prisons.
- Police said traffickers used drones to drop explosives during firefights, schools and transit were disrupted with buses seized as barricades, and Argentina tightened border checks in response.