March 31, 2005: On Thursday night 30 people were shot dead in two suburbs of Rio. This may be the worst massacre in recent history. Up to four men and maybe one woman drove around the neighborhoods for about two hours, between 8 pm and midnight, stopping periodically to open fire on anyone they saw. The killers drove around the two working class neighborhoods, killing nine in a bar here, two in front of a car wash there, and kept going, until after 11 stops, a seven year old boy, a carpenter, a car washer, a house wife, a painter, a waiter and 24 others were killed.

The point was to sow terror and to send a message. The main suspects are police officers. The dominant theory for why this happened, is that the message was meant for a new police commander who is cracking down on corruption and sequestering suspected dirty cops.

Both the New York Times and Reuters had good articles covering this story: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/international/americas/02brazil.html
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8066600

This didn’t happen in a favela where armed drug dealers could have been the targets – far more difficult targets for sure though. This happened in the same neighborhood I mentioned in my last blog. Its not a rich or fancy area by any means, but not a shanty town filled with socially excluded poor either, but regular workers as they call them here, just as normal as can be. I visited Quemados a week ago where I was happily received at the oldest community radio station in Brazil, Radio Novos Rumos.

I wonder how they are covering the crime. If they are afraid to broadcast anything harsh against the police, or to use the radio to galvanize public opposition and channel the national outrage into some productive movement. I know I would be afraid of retaliation after seeing what the monsters are capable of doing to try to maintain their web of corruption.

As mentioned in the project page, Viva Rio was started over 10 years ago as a response to the last horrific slaughter of 29 people. The Candelaria massacre was also perpetrated by police officers, as retaliation for the killing of four of their own.

In outrage over the murders of 21 innocent people, including 8 street children, the founders of Viva Rio decided to start a movement against the violence taking over the city. Corrupt police, supplementing their low incomes, were using death as a tool of power. Drug factions were fighting over territory, killing each other at a rate higher than several war zones. Viva Rio stepped in, and for over a decade, has been making progress in over 350 favelas, with dozens of projects, training police, destroying guns, and offering alternatives to violence.

But this week almost 12 years later, it seems that Viva Rio still has lots of work to do.

Scene of the crime.I wonder how they are covering the crime. If they are afraid to broadcast anything harsh against the police, or to use the radio to galvanize public opposition and channel the national outrage into some productive movement. I know I would be afraid of retaliation after seeing what the monsters are capable of doing to try to maintain their web of corruption.

As mentioned in the project page, Viva Rio was started over 10 years ago as a response to the last horrific slaughter of 29 people. The Candelaria massacre was also perpetrated by police officers, as retaliation for the killing of four of their own.

In outrage over the murders of 21 innocent people, including 8 street children, the founders of Viva Rio decided to start a movement against the violence taking over the city. Corrupt police, supplementing their low incomes, were using death as a tool of power. Drug factions were fighting over territory, killing each other at a rate higher than several war zones. Viva Rio stepped in, and for over a decade, has been making progress in over 350 favelas, with dozens of projects, training police, destroying guns, and offering alternatives to violence.

But this week almost 12 years later, it seems that Viva Rio still has lots of work to do.