Slaughter in Rio..

[ohgwm226]

30 Killed on Rio Streets and Rogue Police Officers Are Implicated.

 

That was the title of an article in New York Times today. Apparently the Military Police was implicated in masssive killing of civilians in a poor neighborhood in Rio Thursday. I doubt the people living or visiting Zona Sol noticed anything. Here is the link to the article.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/international/americas/01cnd-brazil.html?

 

What a sad story for such a heavenly beautiful city, and charming people.

 

OHGWM226

[bigguyinpasadena]

From the Ap wires

 

Rio de Janeiro — Police incensed by investigations of brutality and corruption by “bad” cops may have carried out a massacre in two impoverished suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, killing 27 people, state officials said Friday.

 

Another victim was left brain dead in Thursday's onslaught in Nova Iguacu and Queimados, crime-infested suburbs 30 kilometres northwest of Rio, said Claudia Guerreiro, a spokeswoman for the Rio Public Safety Department.

 

In Queimados, gunmen mowed down 12 people, some in Bible Square and others in front of a car wash, she said. In nearby Nova Iguacu, they killed 15 people at a bar, she said.

 

“There are strong indications that the massacres could have been a reprisal ... for the arrest of eight police officers suspected of killing two men in police station” earlier this week, Ms. Guerreiro said.

 

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The eight were caught on camera dumping the bodies of the two men outside the station, she said.

 

Marcelo Itagiba, head of the Rio de Janeiro State Public Safety Department, said authorities were investigating whether police participated in Thursday's suburb slayings. If they were, he said, “we will be implacable.”

 

He said the massacre may have been the work of people “unhappy with our investigations into crimes committed by police officers and with our efforts to weed out corrupt and bad policemen.”

 

One victim was 13-year-old Felipe Soares Carlos, who had had just returned from school.

 

“He went out to play with his friends and minutes later I heard shots,” said his 17-year-old sister, Priscila. “I went out and saw a lot of bodies stretched out on the street and then I saw my brother. I touched him and his eyes rolled over, and I knew he was dead.”

 

“One minute you see all these kids you have known for years playing in the street and the next minute they are all dead,” said Maria Jose, who owns a neighbourhood bar. “It was shocking.”

 

There was no other information on other victims.

 

The human-rights group Amnesty International said the killings were reminiscent of massacres by Rio death squads.

 

Twelve years ago, death squads killed eight street children while they slept outside Rio de Janeiro's Candelaria church. A month later, 21 people in Rio's Vigario Geral shantytown were gunned down, apparently in retaliation for the killing of police allegedly involved in drug dealing.

 

Rio de Janeiro is one of the world's most violent cities, with a homicide rate of around 50 per 100,000 residents.

[trilingual]

Sadly, exactly the same thing happens in the poor parts of Rio and other Brazilian cities every single day, except on a smaller scale, so it rarely makes the international news. Violence is endemic in the poor areas of Brazil, in part because arms have been as easy or easier to acquire here than in the U.S. There are also constant robberies of military weapons (like grenades) from military bases, aided and abetter, undoubtedly, by corrupt soldiers or military police.

 

Ironically, this massacre seems to have been triggered as revenge for a campaign to clean up this particular battalion of the Policia Militar and expel the bad apples.

 

Brazil is working on controling firearms sales. There has been a buy-back program the last year or so that's had a degree of success. It hasn't gotten arms out of the hands of the drug-dealers and real crooks, but it has gotten them out of the homes of law-abiding citizens, and in the places where there was high participation in the buy-back the rate of killings in domestic disputes or by kids playing with guns they found in a dresser has dropped dramatically. There will be referendum in October on banning gun sales and private gun ownership altogether, and it has a lot of support, although the gun manufacturers are doing everything they can to have it fail. Brazil has always been poor, and it has always had crime, but the current armed slaughter is a relatively new phenomenon in Brazilian history. People can still remember when it was safe to walk the streets pretty much everywhere in most cities without having to worry about getting caught in the crossfire of gun battles between the police and the drug traffickers, or getting killed by a stray bullet fired from a nearby favela.

 

If the referendum passes, it will help, although not overnight and not totally. To really put an end to the problem the government is going to have to get serious about legalizing drugs and destroying the profit motive that keeps the traffickers in business. But that's a whole other battle that's not going to be solved any time soon. . .

[BigK]

Recently watched City of God about the police and drug wars in Brazil. Facinating and chilling. Check it out. I'm sure many of you have.

[Guest ihpguy]

For an interesting experience about violence in Rio de Janeiro, including information about the Candelaria church massacre, try to find the film "BUS 174" I bought it last year through Amazon.com. It is a very interesting documentary. When combined with a viewing of "City of God" in a double feature, it might certainly be the scariest advertisement for a tourism excursion to the Cidade Maravilhosa. But then thoughts of cocktails on the Praca Floriano at Amarelinha, the floor shows at Point or 117 or Sunday afternoon at Ipanema certainly change any scary thoughts to warm and fuzzy ones. Two weeks and I'll be back in heaven.

[buckguy]

"Bus 174" is incredible. One of the best documentaries I have seen in memory. It chronicles the hostage taking of passengers on a bus near the Botanical Garden. The Brazilian news media were there en masse and the the nature of taking passengers on a bus (more public and a physically more open place than a bank or an office building) made it possible to record everything minute-by-minute. The film maker includes surviving passengers (including a young woman who demonstrated a tremendous amout of cool, cleverness, and compassion for everyone including thenhostage taker), family and friends of the hostage taker, the police, a social worker who knew the hostage taker, and a sociologist (who could have been edited out compeletely). It is a riveting piece of film that is just indescribable except to say that it puts a face and a context on the poverty and violence in Rio.

[trilingual]

Today's news in Rio is overwhelmed by coverage of the Pope's death, but this evening's news broadcast that at least two of the perpetrators of the massacre have been caught. Chances are decent that they'll finger their associates.

 

The criminal justice system in Brazil is notoriously slow, inefficient and tilted to those in power, but things have been slowly changing in the past ten years or so and some criminals who would have gone scot-free just a few years ago (like cops, or politicians) now end up behind bars. At times the system actually works with reasonable speed. This crime has shocked not only Rio but the rest of the nation, which is pretty inured to crime stories. As the news starts putting faces on the individual victims (including a disproportionate number of children, teenagers and working people going about their every day lives) the outrage is growing. People are marching demanding justice, and with elections coming up next year for top federal and state offices, the pols will feel the pressure. I'm moderately optimistic that these guys won't get away with this. And if that turns out to be the case, it will definitely be another step in the right direction for Brazil.

[marko]

You can bet your bottom dollar that some of the guys working the saunas, Cinelandia, Campo Santana and other places come from Nova Iguacu (I've met a number of them) and know people who were killed. I hope Trilingual is right and that the men responsible for this outrage against innocent people are indeed brought to justice, and swiftly.

[trilingual]

Several more suspects have been arrested (all rogue Polícia Militar members). Proof against them is mounting, as several have been identified by eyewitnesses, and incriminating stuff has been found at some of their homes. There's some hope the perpetrators will be convicted and imprisoned. Hopefully at one of the new federal prisons the government is building around the country, far away from Rio!!!

[Guest dreynsol]

It is indeed a sad day in the life of peace-loving Brazilians that adhor these actions and the taking of innocent life.

 

As Trilingual stated, unfortunately there are many similar occurences in Brazil that do not make the headlines.

 

We, in the US, have come to realize that random acts of violence do occur (however infrequently) from feelings of hopelessness, revenge, disenfranchisement, or simply "going postal". You can only imagine the lives of many Brazilians.

 

For many of us that think that moving to Brazil is getting away from the "rat race", I would recommend this article (including the comments).

 

http://www.brazzil.com/content/view/8976/76/

 

Tchau,

- Drey

[Guest ihpguy]

Dear Tri,

I so enjoy your writings on various subjects and in many of the forums on the MC. How do many people survive on the official pay. I know my policeman-friend, goes nearly every day to Spa 73 before working the night shift being in extreme danger from the random violence of Rio. I've had conversations with a regular bus driver who goes to work at Estacao as a a second regular job. At 117, the cousins, Rafael and Flavio also have wives and kids are in the saome boat. Jobs that pay 400 or 500 Reais per month. And the need of 1200 plus Reais per month to support the wife and kids. No doubt, there are many more stories such as these among many more of the garotos. Actually, how do many Brazilians manage? My frinds on Paqueta seem to do okay. But at the end of the month, sometimes things are tight, from what they tell me. ON the ferry boat, they are going through their pockets for 50 centavos for a cafe sauzino. My caseiro never complains but then he is getting nearly 200R per week, no rent and no utilites to pay. He has no family and the money he saves goes to the house he owns in Nova Iguacu, they he takes my castoff things to continually upgrade and furnish on his days off. Please write or post something for at least my education. It seems to me that the financial situation must at least partially contribute to the situation down there. At lunch we spoke of "mao de vaca" and another phrase and can't seem to remember.

[trilingual]

Surviving in an urban area in Brazil on less than R$1200/mo. is very difficult. As you pointed out, jobs for unskilled/uneducated people typically pay only R$400 - 500 a month. Usually, extended families live together and pool their incomes (at least part of them) and that's how they manage. There are many other informal coping mechanisms people adopt to increase their income. If you're single, or have emigrated to Rio from the countryside to find work and don't have a local support network, it's much harder, because jobs remain scarce, especially for the young and unskilled. Of course, if you're handsome, hunky and hung, and willing to give it a go, you can supplement your income at the saunas. That explains your policeman and bus driver. They need to work to make ends meet. The Brazilian economy is improving and jobs are being created, but there's a huge jobs deficit from the past many years and full employment is a long way off.

 

Someday Brazil is going to have to confront the huge disparities in wages and the need to provide a meaningful minimum wage for everyone. How that can be done without unbalancing the economy is somewhat beyond my understanding of economics.