Note from BW of Brazil: Another day, another unfortunate homicide, in this case two. While it’s always a shame to see people lose their lives in such a violent manner, this case is ironic and perhaps even a bit more bitter to swallow as it happened on the same day in which an estimated 50,000 people took to the streets in 17 Brazilian cities to protest against the genocide against the black population. In a previous report, we also pointed to the fact that black women are the majority of the women killed in Brazil as well. Although it’s obviously too soon to make any unsubstantiated claims or accusations, it’s still a sad situation that’s all too common in Brazil. Was this a random act of violence? Were they assaulted by someone they knew? Or could this possibly be part of a documented right-wing plot of extermination? Who knows. But what we do know that after Raissa Vargas Motta, another family consisting of mother/daughter Maria de Fátima dos Santos and Alessandra de Jesus, Cláudia da Silva Ferreira and too many others to name here, one can understand why we charge genocide.
Grandfather of slain sisters in Belford Roxo vents: ‘constant pain’
by Bernado Costa
“We’re living in constant pain.” The phrase was uttered by the grandfather of the sisters found dead in Morro Gogó da Ema in Belford Roxo of the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio, and it demonstrated the feeling of family. The student Ariane Oliveira de Souza, 19, and the hairdresser Jéssica Oliveira de Souza, 22, had been kidnapped on Sunday, when they left a concert at Rio Sampa, in Via Dutra, in Nova Iguaçu, also in the Baixada region. The bodies were found embraced with gunshot wounds and signs of rape.
“We are no longer able to talk about it. Each time that we repeat the same things it’s as if we’re reliving all the suffering,” said the grandfather of the young women, who identified himself only as Jurandir.
Visibly shaken, other relatives requested privacy and avoided talking about the crime. The sisters were buried together on Monday, in the Cemetery of Belford Roxo. The case is being investigated by the Homicide Division of the Baixada Fluminense (DHBF). The location where the bodies of Ariane and Jéssica were found – a dirt street – has been analyzed by a forensics expert. The agents are now trying to obtain images that can show the sisters in Rio Sampa and also at the exit of the venue.
Embraced dead sisters were assaulted the night before the murder, says a witness
by Bernado Costa and Marina Navarro Lins
A witness in the case testified in the Homicide Division (DHBF), and stated that the young women had been assaulted before going to Rio Sampa.
“The witness, a friend of the sisters, was with them that night and told us that at around 11:30pm, one of the young women commented on the assault and was relieved to not have taken the ticket of the party. After that, the witness didn’t see Ariane and Jéssica again,” said Commissioner Fabio Salvadoretti, of the DHBF.
Also according to Salvadoretti, this is the first person to be heard about the case. Furthermore, the police have already taken pictures of the interior and the entrance of the venue. These will be analyzed.
Ariane and Jéssica, living of Heliópolis, were found on Rua Cardoso Martins, a path of access to Gogó da Ema. According to a relative, who declined to be identified, Jéssica had an 8-year old son, and the sisters always went out together:
“They would always walk to Rio Sampa. Neither was involved in drug trafficking.”
The sisters were buried together on Monday, in the Cemetery of Belford Roxo. A bus left the neighborhood where they lived with dozens of friends and relatives.
From the tone of this blog post, it sounds like the crime was racially motivated. I don’t think it actually is. We live in a time where people can be easily outed and identified via the internet. So the best way to prevent witnesses is to silence them, that’s why they just weren’t rapped but murdered.
This isn’t a trend either, there plenty of cases the world over where women are rapped then murdered because dead men, in this case women tell no tails…
Actually, no. The article simply shows that two black women (whether they identify as preta or parda) were killed. It DOES NOT say it was racially motivated.
“Although it’s obviously too soon to make any unsubstantiated claims or accusations, it’s still a sad situation that’s all too common in Brazil. Was this a random act of violence? Were they assaulted by someone they knew? Or could this possibly be part of a documented right-wing plot of extermination? Who knows.”
There is a difference between simply indicating that two black women were killed as opposed to claiming it was racially motivated because, at this point, no one knows.