Brazilian police have been accused of cutting off the head of a 19-year-old and hanging it from a tree as authorities launched a deadly raid in Rio de Janeiro just days ahead of a visit to the city by Prince William. The massive operation by armed police targeting a drug gang embedded in low-income neighborhoods of the southeastern city left at least 119 people dead, including four officers.
The operation was carried out by about 2,500 police and soldiers in the favelas of Penha and Complexo de Alemao. Police and soldiers had launched the raid in helicopters, armored vehicles and on foot, targeting the Red Command gang. They drew gunfire and other retaliation from gang members, sparking scenes of chaos across the city on Tuesday.
Schools in the affected areas shuttered, a local university canceled classes, and roads were blocked with buses used as barricades. The day after the operation was launched, residents of the Complexo da Penha favela reportedly found and recovered dozens of bodies in a forest on its outskirts.
One of them had been decapitated, AFP journalists reported. Raquel Tomas, the mother of the deceased, spoke to the agency, alleging: “They slit my son’s throat, cut his neck, and hung the head from a tree like a trophy.”
“They executed my son without giving him a chance to defend himself. He was murdered,” she claimed.
“Everyone deserves a second chance. During an operation, police should do their job, arrest suspects, but not execute them,” she added.
Albino Pereira Neto, a laywer representing three bereaved families, alleged a number of bodies had burn marks and some victims had been tied up before being killed.
“Some were murdered in cold blood,” he claimed.
Drug factions allegedly launched drone bomb attacks on police as payback for the raid, with a police spokesperson saying: “This is how the Rio police are treated by criminals: with bombs dropped by drones,” as per The Sun.
“This is not ordinary crime, but narco-terrorism,” they claimed.
Rio state Governor Claudio Castro claimed the people killed by authorities were all criminals, and that clashes with police largely occurred in a wooded area where civilians were unlikely to be, as per Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think anyone would be walking in the forest on the day of the conflict,” she said. “The only real victims were the police officers.”
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Castro to provide information about the police operation and scheduled a hearing with the state governor and the heads of the military and civil police next Monday in Rio.
The Senate’s commission for human rights said it was asking for clarifications from the Rio state government. Meanwhile, Rio prosecutors requested that Castro provide detailed information about the operation and proof that there was no less harmful means of achieving its objectives.
Late on Wednesday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on X that he had instructed the justice minister and director-general of Federal Police to meet Castro for a meeting in Rio.
Prince William and prominent environmentalist voices will be travelling to Rio next week for his fifth annual Earthshot Prize awards on November 5.
Security is said to have been beefed up in response to the violence, and there’s no indication yet that his appearance will be cancelled.
He will then join world leaders for the COP30 climate summit in the city of Belém in the north of the country.
