Residents of Rio de Janeiro experienced moments of panic and fear this Tuesday (28) in the face of the police operation in the Penha and Alemão Complexeswhich left more than 60 dead and 80 arrested. Thousands faced difficulties getting home, due to the city road blocksin addition to having to flee from shootings.
Metro stations and bus stops were crowded in the afternoon. According to the PM, criminals from the Comando Vermelho faction were ordered to close the city’s main roads.
Shooting
Teacher Marise Flor says she was caught in the middle of a shooting while taking a bus back home. The son even tried to pick her up by car, but was unable to get through the roadblocks. She had to get off at Outeiro Santo station, on the Transolímpica corridor, in Jacarepaguá, in the west zone because of the barricades, set up by criminal factions.
According to her, the military police arrived and shot to disperse the residents who insisted on remaining in the area. At this moment, Marise Flor returned to the station to escape the gunfire.
“I entered the station back under the turnstile to hide from the shots.”
The teacher tried to get an app car. “It was only later that I managed to leave the station. My son managed to catch me and I got home.”
She says that the desperate situation caused pain in her stomach. “Then I broke down. I had a crying fit.”
Barricades
The attendant at an ice cream kiosk in a supermarket in Engenho Novo, Mariana Colbert, 24 years old and 4 months pregnant, says that at 8:30 am the streets where she lives, in Engenho da Rainha, were already closed.
According to the young woman, three buses were across the road. More than 50 buses were used as barricades in Rio de Janeiro.
She had to walk to Inhaúma to catch a bus to work. Mariana Colbert says that the driver changed his route to avoid passing through the community run by the Comando Vermelho faction, the target of the mega police operation.
“It took me an hour to get to work, but I still managed to get there. Many people didn’t go to work, many stores were closed. When it was 4pm I was released. I took an Uber, which was more expensive, but I managed to get home quickly. When I got back [para casa]the road was already open and there were a lot of police on the streets”, he reports.
Operation Containment
Rio de Janeiro is undergoing the biggest security operation in 15 years, according to the state government.
In total, 2,500 civil and military police officers were mobilized in actions in the Alemão and Penha complexes. The objective is to capture criminal leaders and contain the territorial expansion of the Red Command.
The operation, which leaves at least 64 dead, is also the most lethal, surpassing the number of deaths from the operation in Jacarezinho, which caused 28 deaths in 2021.
