Demonstrators call for governor’s resignation after deadly Rio police raid

In a protest against Rio state governor Claudio Castro’s resignation, hundreds of protesters have marched through one of the favelas that were the target of the most recent police raid.

The protesters’ vocal voices were heard on Friday in Vila Cruzeiro, a part of the Penha complex of favelas that were assaulted, as they gathered to protest the police operation that killed at least 121 people, including four police officers.

On Tuesday, about 2,500 police and soldiers stormed the crowded, low-income neighborhoods known as the Complexo de Alemao and Complexo da Penha favelas in Rio de Janeiro, killing the notorious gang Comando Vermelho (Red Command) in the Complexo de Alemao and Complexo da Penha.

The officers drew retaliation from gang members, causing chaos in the city, with the aid of armored vehicles and helicopters.

Capturing gang leaders and halt Red Command’s territorial expansion were the stated goals. In recent years, the organization has grown in control of the city’s favelas and other locations.

Authorities initially claimed only 64 people had died, but residents discovered numerous bodies in a nearby wooded area the following day.

As they gathered in Vila Cruzeiro, where residents had laid out dozens of dead bodies days earlier, activists, and grieving mothers who lost their sons in previous operations, expressed their anger.

The right-wing governor of Rio de Janeiro received a lot of the support, with protesters calling him an “assissassin.”

Stop the massacres, Castro, out with us! protesters chanted and demanded that the governor resign or that he be imprisoned.

“Favelas isn’t public policy,” says the statement. Monica Benicio, a member of the local council, called it a massacre.

Castro argued that the operation was a “success” against “narco-terrorists,” claiming that those killed were drug users who opposed police. Of the 99 suspects so far, 42 had outstanding arrest warrants, according to the state government, and 78 had long-running criminal histories.

At the protest on Friday, there was a sign that read, “120 lives lost is not a success,” and another that read, “Castro has blood on his hands.”

Many also criticized the location of the bodies’ bodies. Several bodies were reportedly found with puncture wounds or tied up, while others were not.

Rights groups and the UN condemned the death toll, which was the highest level ever recorded during a Rio police operation. Human Rights Watch called for Brazilian authorities to conduct “a prompt, thorough, and independent investigation of each of the killings” and denounced the “disastrous operation.”

Castro is required to provide detailed details about how the operation was carried out in Brazil, according to the Supreme Court and lawmakers. A hearing with Castro and the heads of the military and civil police is scheduled for November 3 according to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Castro claims that the government of leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is anti-crime, saying Rio de Janeiro has abandoned Rio in its fight against gangs.