Rio de Janeiro was the scene of a war. In the early hours of Wednesday, residents of the Complexo da Penha moved more than 50 bodies to São Lucas Square after finding them in a wooded area between the Alemão and Penha complexes, the epicenter of the deadliest police operation in the state's history.
In the early hours of the day, Civil Defense arrived at the scene to remove the bodies, while images of neighbors piling up corpses shocked the country. Authorities officially confirm 64 dead and 81 detained, although local organizations estimate that the real number could exceed those figures.
A war against crime that exposes the State's vacuum
The operation was launched against Comando Vermelho, the most powerful drug group in Brazil, which controls large areas of northern Rio. However, the brutality of the clashes, the high number of victims, and the institutional lack of coordination exposed the collapse of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's public security policy.
Meanwhile, Governor Cláudio Castro (PL) speaks of a "war" and demands federal support, while the Palácio do Planalto once again remained silent, repeating the pattern of indifference already seen in previous tragedies.
Analysts and opposition legislators denounce that the Executive deliberately abandoned states controlled by the opposition, allowing organized crime to continue expanding without an effective response.
