132 killed in massive Rio police crackdown on gang: public defender
The operation involved 2,500 security personnel and resulted in 64 deaths, including four officers, with 81 arrests and numerous weapons seized, marking the deadliest police raid in Rio's history.
- On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, Rio authorities launched a massive raid with about 2,500 police and soldiers targeting the Comando Vermelho, using helicopters and armoured vehicles and leaving 120 dead.
- Born of a year-long probe, the raid targeted Red Command leaders to curb the gang's territorial expansion, which has grown in favelas in recent years.
- Police said they arrested at least 81 suspects and seized 75 rifles along with more than 200 kg of cocaine during the operation, while 46 schools were closed and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro canceled night classes.
- By Thursday, families of victims had begun burying the dead as human rights groups and the United Nations human rights office condemned the operation and Brazil's Supreme Court ordered Claudio Castro to provide details ahead of Monday's hearing.
- Experts noted the operation's unprecedented scale as bodies were laid side by side and residents of Penha and Vila Cruzeiro brought corpses to the street days before COP30 next month.
601 Articles
601 Articles
Brazilian foreign fighters in Ukraine sound alarm about infiltration by South American gangs
At first glance, a YouTube interview with Philippe Marques Pinto looks like one of dozens of others in Ukraine’s long-running campaign to recruit South American soldiers to bolster its ranks in the fight against Russia. “I worked as a private security guard in Brazil, and when I arrived here, I got training, and it was just a question of adaptation,” Pinto says in an April 25, 2025, video for the Foreign Recruitment Center, a channel run by Ukra…
Just after the most lethal police operation in Brazil’s history and despite numerous criticisms, support for hard-handed proposals driven by the right against criminal factions, including a law to declare them terrorists in the South American country, is multiplying. Tuesday’s mega operation in two favelas complexes in Rio de Janeiro left at least 117 suspected criminals and four policemen dead, and was described as “a success” against “narcoter…
A large-scale police operation in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday left 132 people dead. "Operação Contenção," a year in the making, is the deadliest police operation ever in Rio. A reconstruction.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 43% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
