Bodies of victims killed during an anti-drug operation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 28, 2025. MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP
The Rio de Janeiro public defender's office on Wednesday, October 29, said a total of 132 people died in the bloodiest police raid against drug gangs in the Brazilian city's history, as grieving residents laid out dozens of bodies in the street. "The most recent update is 132 dead," the Rio state public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). There was no immediate corroboration of the figure from other sources.
Rio state Governor Claudio Castro put the death toll from Tuesday's violence at around 60 but warned that the real figure was likely higher as more bodies were being taken to a morgue, where the dead were being counted. Four police officers were slain during the military-style operation, which involved 2,500 officers taking on Rio's most powerful criminal organization, the Comando Vermelho, or Red Command.
Early Wednesday, in Penha Complex – one of two densely populated, working-class neighborhoods targeted in northern Rio – residents grieved over at least 50 corpses. A woman screamed as she hunched over the body of one of the victims, who were laid out in a line, covered in make-shift shrouds, some stained with blood. Two girls, their faces streaked with tears, gently caressed the face of a dead man, wrapped in a sheet with a floral motif, and then hugged each other tightly.
