Category Archives: Rio de Janeiro

Brazilians blame Rio governor’s shoot-to-kill policy for death of girl

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Hundreds protest over favela killing of Ágatha Félix, eight, allegedly shot in back by police

The photograph shows a smiling eight-year-old girl dressed as Wonder Woman, beaming through gap teeth and crossing her small clenched fists into an X. Shocked Brazilians shared the image of Ágatha Félix online after she was shot in the back in a Rio de Janeiro favela on Friday night by what residents said was a bullet from a police officer’s rifle. She later died in hospital.

She was the fifth young child to be killed in Rio favelas this year. Favela activists, politicians, the public defenders’ office and the president of Rio’s bar association blamed the shoot-to-kill policy of the Rio governor, Wilson Witzel. “He is responsible for the murder,” tweeted Guilherme Boulos, a leftist politician.

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‘Caught defenseless in the crossfire’: Rio families cope with deaths by police violence

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Rio de Janeiro police have killed a record number of people in the name of Wilson Witzel’s war on drugs, and many say it’s civilian lives being lost

Night has fallen on Rio de Janeiro’s Albert Schweitzer hospital, and in its 11th-floor intensive care unit Enzo Coutinho dozes in his aunt’s lap.

“Sometimes it takes a mountain to trust and believe in you,” Merielle Ventura, a 24-year-old nursery teacher, sings gently into her nephew’s ear.

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Brazil gang leader dresses up as teenage daughter in jailbreak attempt

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Rio tabloids mock Clauvino da Silva’s botched escape, which also left his daughter, 19, inside

When Mexico’s “Shorty” – the drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán – made his cinematic 2015 jail-break it required a mile-long tunnel, a multimillion dollar bribe and even a private plane that whisked him to freedom in the mountains of Sinaloa.

El Chapo’s Brazilian namesake hoped to achieve the same using just a silicone mask, a black bra and wig, and a skin-tight T-shirt emblazoned with three pink doughnuts.

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Foiled prison escape for Brazilian gang leader who tried to sneak out dressed as daughter – video

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A Brazilian inmate has been caught trying to escape from prison by pretending to be his teenage daughter when she visited him behind bars. Gang leader Clauvino da Silva, also known as  'Shorty', tried to leave the prison in Rio de Janeiro dressed in her clothes and wearing a silicon girl's mask and long dark-haired wig, but his nervousness gave him away, prison officials said. His plan was apparently to leave his 19-year-old daughter inside the jail. Officials released a video in which da Silva can be seen removing the mask and some of the clothes

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Brazilian drug gang opens fire on convoy of trucks carrying nuclear fuel

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Latest incident raises concerns about Brazil’s nuclear security in a state struggling with violent crime

A convoy of trucks carrying nuclear fuel came under armed attack on a highway in Rio de Janeiro state on Tuesday as it drove past a community controlled by a drug gang. Gang members armed with rifles opened fire on the convoy, Rio’s O Globo newspaper said.

Armed police escorting the convoy exchanged fire with armed gang members as the trucks carrying uranium continued to a nearby nuclear plant. The attack is the latest of several violent incidents in the area where Brazil has two nuclear reactors and has raised concerns about its nuclear security in a state struggling with high levels of violent crime.

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Brazil: two ex-police officers arrested over murder of Marielle Franco

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Franco, an outspoken critic of police violence against favela residents, was killed in 2018, prompting international outrage

Two former police officers have been arrested over the murder of the Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco, two days before the first anniversary of her death, which prompted international outrage.

Franco, a groundbreaking politician who was born in one of Rio’s largest favelas and became a voice for disadvantaged people in the city, was killed in a drive-by shooting along with her driver, Anderson Gomes.

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Brazilians demand answers for Marielle Franco’s murder at Rio carnival

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Revellers used annual carnival to ‘protest’ and pay tribute to the councilwoman nearly a year after the still-unsolved murder

Nearly a year after the still-unsolved murder of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman and LGBT activist Marielle Franco, Brazilian revellers have used their country’s annual carnival to demand answers.

Related: Lights, sequins, samba: Rio carnival at the Sambadrome – in pictures

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Rio declares three days of mourning after fire kills 10 teenage footballers

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Flamengo president says it is ‘the worst tragedy to happen to the club in its 123 years’

Rio de Janeiro has declared three days of mourning as investigators seek to determine the cause of the fire that killed 10 teenage footballers at the training centre of the city’s Flamengo football club on Friday morning.

Cláudio Castro, the vice governor of Rio de Janeiro state, said authorities were looking at the possibility of a short circuit in an air conditioning unit.

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Which is the world’s most LGBT-friendly city?

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Even when cities seem progressive on the surface, the lived experience of members of the LGBT community can tell a dramatically different story

Amid a mass of colour and pounding Latin rhythms, revellers at this year’s Bogotá Pride march waved banners stating “not one step back”. They were among tens of thousands who took to the streets to celebrate and support Colombia’s LGBT community.

Many annual Pride marches that were once solemn protests against repression have become celebrations of now-existing rights or progress, reflecting the strength of LGBT communities.

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