At least nine people have died at the hands of the police during a raid in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro aimed at locating and arresting members of criminal groups, authorities reported on Wednesday, August 2.
The operation was carried out in the Complexo da Penha, a group of favelas located in the northern part of the city, after the agents received information about a meeting of high-level leaders of criminal groups. Rio state police reported that officers returned fire after being attacked by armed individuals.
The balance of this meeting includes the deaths of Fiel and Du Leme, leaders of the impoverished neighborhoods of Juramento and Chatuba. A police officer was injured but is in stable condition at the hospital.
The latest deaths come amid growing calls for independent investigations into alleged police abuses in Brazil, where security forces have faced accusations of human rights violations while fighting organized crime groups. In the last six days, at least 42 people have been killed in police operations against drug gangs across the country, 14 of them in the state of São Paulo and 19 in the northeastern state of Bahia.
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