VivaFavela notes the fourth anniversary of the Baixada Massacre.
Corrupt military policemen cruising down the highway in downstate Rio de Janeiro, blasting human beings at random, after delivering a message to fellow troopers investigating them: rolling severed human heads into the station house like hairy hand grenades.
Severed.
Human.
Heads.
29 pessoas foram mortas em Queimados e Nova Iguaçu no caso que ficou conhecido como Chacina da Baixada no ano de 2005. Quatro anos depois, amigos e familiares ainda buscam justiça e convivem com o medo de represálias por parte dos acusados.
29 persons were killed in Queimados and Nova Iguaçu in the case that became known as the Baixada Massacre in 2005. Four years later, friends and relatives still seek justice and live with fear of reprisals by the accused.
Passados quatro anos, a polícia ainda não deu uma versão oficial do que realmente aconteceu naquele dia. São duas as hipóteses investigadas: que os policiais integrariam grupos de extermínio da Baixada e por isso escolheram suas vítimas aleatoriamente. O intuito era causar terror, medo e pânico. A outra possibilidade era a insatisfação com a “Operação Navalha na Carne”, que investigava PMs envolvidos com o assassinato de dois homens, alguns dias antes da chacina. A corporação queria demonstrar sua insatisfação com a mudança do coronel do 15º Batalhão de Duque de Caxias.
Four years later, the police have yet to provide an official version of what really happened that day. Two theories are being investigated: First, that the policemen were members of local death squads and for this reason chose victims at random. Their objective was to cause terror, fear and panic. The other possibility was dissatisfaction with a police operation investigating military policemen involved in the assassination of two men a few days before the massacre. The troopers wanted to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the change of command at the 15th Battalion of Duque de Caxias.
Or both. Or something. Nobody knows nothing.
The two dead men being the involuntary donors of the hairy bowling balls.
The police here sometimes have an extraordinarily difficult time investigating themselves.
Or an extraordinarily easy time refusing to investigate themselves.
Depends on how you look at it.
Parentes e testemunhas das vitimas da chacina ainda sofrem ameaças de desconhecidos que circulam na localidade. O fato levou familiares das vitimas a procurarem o Ministério Público Estadual, em Nova Iguaçu, no último dia dez de março para denunciar.
Relatives of victims and witnesses to the massacre are still receiving threats from unknown persons circulating through the area. This led relatives of victims to contact the state prosecutor’s office in Nova Iguaçu on March 31 to denounce the threats.
Acompanhado do diretor executivo do Centro de Direitos Humanos de Nova Iguaçu (CDH) Padre Justino, familiares expuseram a preocupação de coação e ameaças as testemunhas do crime. Dos ex-policiais envolvidos, apenas dois foram condenados (Jorge Carvalho e José Augusto Felipe), outros dois aguardam o julgamento (Julio Amaral e Marcos Siqueira) e um está em liberdade (Fabiano Lopes), por ter cumprido quatro anos de pena pelo crime de formação de quadrilha.
Accompanied by executive director Father Justino of the Nova Iguaçu Human Rights Center, families expressed their concern over coercion and threats against witnesses to the crime. Of the former policemen involved, only two have been found guilty … while another two await trial … and one is at large after having served four years on charges of criminal conspiracy.
You see why we sometimes refer to this place as Sambodia?
Nice music, great beaches … scenes straight out of Apocalypse Now, perpetrated by the holders of the monopoly on the legitimate exercise of State violence.
Over whom the State wields just about zero control, thanks to institutional prerogatives that are essentially, as I understand it, throwbacks to the military dictatorship.
A report on the incident by Justiça Global, titled “Impunity in the Baixada,” noted the historical precedents of this sort of conduct in the region, and the neglect of the region by the Rio de Janeiro press.
An excerpt:
Starting with the creation of the Military Police, in 1967, as an auxiliary force in the process of political repression and preventive patrolling, death squad activity began to escalate in the region. The direct, and later indirect, participation of policemen in these groups, their financing by local merchants and businessmen, and the backing of local political groups, created the conditions for this criminal organization to thrive.
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