Brazil | 'Executions', 'torture' and 'carnage' in deadly Rio de Janeiro police raid

The provisional death toll now stood at 119, including 115 suspected criminals and four police officers.

Brazilian police were today accused of gruesome brutality as part of a bloody gang crackdown before international heads of state and dignitaries arrive in the country for the COP30 Climate Summit.

Officers have been accused of beheading a teenage gangster and hanging his head from a tree after the country's bloodiest-ever favela raid.

In the ongoing favela violence, gangs bombed police with drones in revenge for the deadly crackdown in the Penha district.

'This is how the Rio police are treated by criminals: with bombs dropped by drones,' said a police spokesperson.

'This is the scale of the challenge we face. This is not ordinary crime, but narco-terrorism.'

A resident added: 'This is the first time we've seen drones from criminals dropping bombs in the community. Everyone is terrified because there's so much gunfire.'

The aerial assaults came after a brutal police crackdown left at least 119 people dead - spotlighting the city's controversial war against drug gangs entrenched in its poorest neighbourhoods.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for action against organized crime that does not endanger police or civilians, as Brazil's security challenges were laid bare.

Families of the dead decried what they described as executions by police, while the state government hailed a successful operation against a powerful criminal group that has taken over large swaths of Rio de Janeiro.

The divisive police raid exposed the violent underbelly of a city beloved by tourists for its idyllic beaches and vibrant culture.

State authorities said the provisional death toll now stood at 119, including 115 suspected criminals and four police officers.

'We cannot accept that organized crime continues to destroy families, oppress residents, and spread drugs and violence throughout the cities,' Lula wrote on X.

Reactions

The Brazilian press reacted after the deadly police raids on drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro.

Jornal do Brazil writes that "witnesses report execution and torture," calling it a "carnage". The paper says this is the deadliest police operation in the history of the city.

An opinion piece in O Globo says that "Rio is just the most visible wound on a rotting body". The piece says that until Brazil understands the magnitude of the problem and tackles it on a social level, "we will continue to fight a losing battle, killing people and horrifying ourselves with the news" – until the next wave of killings.

Folha de São Paulo reports that the governor of Rio described the operation as a "success", claiming that the operation had preserved the lives of residents.

The Guardian's correspondent reports from Vila Cruzeiro, the favela that was targeted.

Many residents there searched for the dead bodies of their loved ones who were reportedly killed in the nearby forest.

The paper explains that perhaps many of the dead men – mostly in their late teens, twenties and thirties – were members of a local drug faction called "The Red Command."

But locals who flocked to the scene said that Brazil doesn't have a death penalty and that even if they were involved in the local drug trade, the men should have been arrested and not executed.

Source: France24, MailOnline, Staff, October 30, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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