Earlier, in this space, I posted on the brutal assassination of Patrícia Lourival Acioli.
Patricia, a judge who’d been assigned the task of keeping the corrupt cops of Rio de Janeiro in line, was shot dead on the 13th of August as she attempted to enter the garage of her apartment building in the suburb of Niteroi.
Her murder came as a surprise to no one, least of all to Patricia herself.
What did come as a surprise was that her killers made such a paltry attempt to cover it up.
They started by riddling her car with 22 bullets of a type only available to the police and the military. thereby giving a clear signal of who did it and why it had been done.
And then they didn’t bother to disengage the surveillance cameras which registered their approach and departure.
And chose, as one of their gang, a member who was under indictment for other crimes, and had no excuse for his whereabouts at the time of the killing and promptly cracked when he was put under pressure.
All of them were cops.
And this guy, Lieutenant Cláudio Luis de Oliveira, who headed up the Military Police’s Seventh Batallion in the suburb of São Gonçalo, was the guy who gave them their orders.
And this guy, Lieutenant Cláudio Luis de Oliveira, who headed up the Military Police’s Seventh Batallion in the suburb of São Gonçalo, was the guy who gave them their orders.
The clear conclusion has to be that they were so confident of never being arrested, never being charged, that they didn’t worry very much about how they did it.
And that, in itself, says something about law-enforcement in Rio de Janeiro.
There’s lots more to tell about this story, and I hope that someday I will, but right now I have to catch a train from Rome to Firenze.
And I apologize for making this so very short.
Because the details are as fascinating as they are incredible.
Leighton - Monday
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