Overview
- Maria Eduarda, known as Penélope, posted a video saying she is alive and rejected the use of the nickname “Japinha,” calling it an internet fabrication.
- Rio’s Civil Police said the body previously attributed to her was Ricardo Aquino dos Santos, 22, a Bahian with two outstanding arrest warrants.
- Posts and images shared on social networks and in police groups spread the false claim after the Oct. 28 megaoperation that was reported to have left 121 dead in the Penha and Alemão complexes.
- A woman who went viral claiming to be the real figure said she left crime, is pregnant, and that her former street name was “Bibi,” not “Japinha.”
- Police accounts reported that no woman was killed in the operation, while advocate Lais Albuquerque argued the widely shared photos showed Maria Eduarda posing with borrowed guns rather than acting for a faction.