Linha Direta 20/09/2007 - Caso 1: Onde está Careli ? - Caso 2: Caminhos opostos

Program of September 20, 2007 Case 1 An employee of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Fiocruz, disappeared after a day's work. The disappearance of Jorge Antônio Careli, 30 years old, occurred on August 10, 1993, in the Varginha favela, in Manguinhos, northern Rio de Janeiro. Careli's disappearance became a symbol of the fight for human rights. He was allegedly mistaken for a kidnapper and taken by police officers from the Anti-Kidnapping Division, DAS, in an operation not authorized by the police command. Careli's history with Fiocruz, the main public health research institution in Latin America, began when he was still a child. His father, who was an employee of the institution, always took his son to visit the place. In the early 1980s, Careli began working at Fiocruz as a janitor and messenger. Over the years he became a popular employee. Careli and his coworkers used to have lunch at a bar located at the entrance to the Varginha favela, near Fiocruz. After another day of work, Careli went to the bar where he usually ate to pay a bill he owed. In front of the bar was a public phone, which was being monitored by DAS police officers because a possible ransom demand had originated from that location. But in reality, there was no kidnapping. A middle-class young man, an addict, had spent two days in the favela and didn't have money to pay for the drugs he had bought from the traffickers. So he asked one of the traffickers to call his family and say he needed money. The young man's family thought he had been kidnapped and called the police. After paying the bill, Careli waited for the right moment to make a call. The phone was being used by the trafficker who was demanding money from the young addict's family. The criminal noticed the police activity and fled. While Careli was using the phone, he was apprehended by the police. He was beaten and forcibly removed from the favela. The young drug addict returned home, but Careli did not. The next day, news that Careli had been kidnapped by police spread throughout the city. The car in which he was allegedly taken from the favela was found at the DAS headquarters with bullet holes and bloodstains. The Anti-Kidnapping Division confirmed the operation in the favela, but the police officers stated that they had never seen Careli. Fiocruz employees joined in demonstrations to demand a position from the police and authorities. Everyone wanted to know Careli's whereabouts. Twenty-three police officers were accused of the kidnapping. All were eventually acquitted for lack of evidence. A year and three months after the trial, a prisoner said she was with Careli the morning after his disappearance. She revealed that he was badly injured. Despite the emergence of a new witness, no one was convicted and Careli's body was never found. In 1999, the courts ordered the State of Rio de Janeiro to pay compensation for moral damages to Careli's parents. Case 2 Two young men from the outskirts of Curitiba were executed by members of a gang of graffiti artists and troublemakers. The crime occurred on March 21, 2004, in the city of Araucária (PR). The "Gangue dos SEM," which stands for "Sempre Explorando Muros" (Always Exploring Walls), was composed of about 15 young men, and they used to graffiti city walls during the early morning hours and threaten students at school gates. One of the murdered students was a friend of a gang member, but they followed different paths. One dedicated himself to work and studies. The other preferred to join a street gang. The young men met in religion classes, and their friendship lasted eight months. After that, they drifted apart and never saw each other again. Time passed, and at age 20, the student became a father. The other met a parking attendant who was the leader of a graffiti gang and joined the group. While one worked and studied, the other used drugs and terrorized the city. One day, the two young men met again and treated each other with respect. But a fight over a girl led the gang member to consider his former friend an adversary. One Saturday night, the student and a friend went to a nightclub when they encountered the leader of the troublemakers. No one knows for sure what happened, but the two young men got into a car driven by the student's former friend, who allegedly invited them to another nightclub. Also in the car were the gang leader and another member. They set off towards the city of Araucária, near Curitiba, and along the way, the two young men were executed. The student's former friend was arrested and, after two years in prison, was granted the right to respond to the charges while free. The other gang member escaped and a year later drowned while swimming in a river. The gang leader fled after the crime and remains at large to this day.