Hundreds of protesters marched through Vila Cruzeiro favela on Friday, calling for Rio de Janeiro state governor Cláudio Castro to resign after Rio’s most lethal police raid in history left more than 100 dead.
Locals, politicians, activists, grieving mothers who lost their sons in prior operations and people from other Rio neighborhoods gathered to voice their fury in the Penha complex of favelas, where a couple of days prior, residents laid out scores of bodies they had collected from a nearby green area following the raid.
At least 121 people were killed in Tuesday’s operation, including four policemen, according to police. Rio’s public defender’s office says 132 people died.
Many were wearing white, which a protester said symbolized their desire for peace, with some t-shirts printed with red hands. Others held signs saying: “stop killing us” or wore stickers reading “enough massacres.”
Tuesday’s raid, conducted by some 2,500 police and soldiers, targeted the notorious gang Red Command in the Complexo de Alemao and Complexo da Penha favelas.
The operation’s stated objectives were capturing leaders and limiting the territorial Red Command gang, which has increased its control over favelas in recent years but also expanded its presence across Brazil, including in the Amazon rainforest.
On Friday, the state government said that of the 99 suspects identified so far, 42 had outstanding arrest warrants and at least 78 had extensive criminal records. 89 bodies have been released to families, with some funerals taking place on Thursday.
Governor Castro said on Tuesday that Rio was at war against “narco-terrorism,” a term that echoed the Trump administration in its campaign against drug smuggling in Latin America. He called the operation a success.
The state government said those killed were criminals who resisted the police.
But the death toll, the highest ever in a Rio police operation, sparked condemnation from human rights groups, the U.N. and intense scrutiny from authorities.
Brazil’s Supreme Court, prosecutors and lawmakers ordered Castro to provide detailed information about the operation.
AP video by Mario Lobão and Lucas Dumphreys

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