Rio de Janeiro has a line of bodies laid out on a tarp after a major operation.

1:11 The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro, said this Wednesday, the 29th, that the only victims of the mega-operation are the police officers killed. The statement was given at a press conference, shortly after the Public Defender's Office of Rio de Janeiro stated that there are at least 132 dead in the action against the Comando Vermelho (CV).

"Those were the real four victims. Yesterday, the only victims were the four police officers," the governor stated.

Immediately following the governor's press conference, the top officials of Rio de Janeiro's public security forces met and released updated figures. According to the State Secretary of Civil Police of Rio, Felipe Curi, by 1 p.m., the government had counted 119 deaths in the operation, including 4 police officers.

“Yesterday, 58 were neutralized, and today, adding the bodies found in the woods to another 61, we have 119 dead, of which 115 were drug traffickers, and four victims were our police officers. These are the updated numbers of those neutralized who were admitted to our Forensic Medical Institute.”

Line of bodies at the Penha Complex

The operation was the deadliest in the state's history. Residents of the Penha Complex, in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro, one of the locations where the operation took place, carried at least 60 bodies to São Lucas Square during the early hours of Wednesday, the 29th, after the operation.

Earlier, speaking to TV Globo, the Secretary of the Military Police, Colonel Marcelo de Menezes Nogueira, said that the bodies brought by residents were not included in the count. However, the government has not updated the official tally.

The Cláudio Castro government also defended the "success" of the offensive – which involved 2,500 police officers, armored vehicles, and helicopters – to advance into territory dominated by organized crime. The CV (Comando Vermelho) even used drones with bombs in their response, which exposed the traffickers' firepower.

“No one in Brazil has ever seen what is happening here,” said Jéssica, a resident standing in front of the line of bodies on Wednesday morning. “No one in Brazil has ever seen what is happening here,” Jéssica affirms.

Activist Raull Santiago, director of the Papo Reto Institute, stated on Instagram that the bodies were found in a wooded area in the Serra da Misericórdia. According to him, the State Civil Defense is on site to remove the bodies.

Rio de Janeiro returned to stage 1 at 6 am this Wednesday, according to the City Hall's Operations Center. Currently, public transportation is operating normally. All roads are open to traffic.

The region had entered stage 2 at 1:48 PM on Tuesday, due to police incidents that intermittently closed several streets in the north, west, and southwest zones of the city, impacting transportation and the movement of the population throughout the city.