Note from BW of Brazil: Alternative media platforms have been reporting on what’s going in Rio’s occupied favelas for some time and they are needed now more than ever so that it is possible to be able to compare mainstream media depictions of what’s going to that of smaller media outlets. Today’s piece is a follow to yesterday’s report on the death of Rio resident Marisa de Carvalho Nóbrega who was struck in the head by a police rifle butt. She died the following day. As of right now, we cannot officially call her death a murder as official autopsy reports have yet to verify this. If we take into consideration the brutality of Brazil’s police forces against everyday citizens, I’m betting she died as a direct result of her injury.
The other piece here is what a witness says he/she saw in terms of how Marisa’s children were treated by police in the incident that led to Marisa’s arrival on the scene. The witness to this case, like many other witnesses who report seeing foul play wishes to remain anonymous. Can you blame them? In cases like this, I generally the witnesses. But you read today’s story and that from yesterday and come to your own conclusion. One thing is for sure: Rio police were involved in another incident that led to another death.
Sons of dead woman in Cidade de Deus may have been tortured by agents of Bope
Courtesy of Só Fatos
In addition to investigating whether Marisa de Carvalho Nóbrega, a resident of the Cidade de Deus community, died on Monday, due to a butt in the head, she took on Sunday morning by a Special Operations Battalion (Bope) police officer, the police are also inquiring as to whether the team that did a community operation over the weekend tortured two of Marisa’s children. One witness, who testified the day before yesterday at the 32nd DP (precinct) (Taquara), said PMs (Military Police), wearing surgical gloves, beat the youth for about 40 minutes. According to the report, the assaults continued after Marisa arrived on the scene to try to defend the couple of children.
– After approaching the boys, the police put on the gloves, saying they did not want to leave fingerprints or get dirty with blood. They beat them in their faces, asking about (drug) traffickers. They didn’t know anything,” said the witness, shortly after leaving the police station. She asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
According to the witness, Bope’s policemen mistrusted Marisa’s son, a 17-year-old teenager, because they considered him very well dressed, which could, for them, be a sign of connection with trafficking. At the time, he wore a jacket and a name brand cap. After being told that her children were being attacked, Marisa ran to the place, known as Pantanal, still in her pajamas. When she arrived, one of the PMs said the couple had a radio and ordered Marisa to beat her daughter. As she refused, she was beaten with a rifle butt on the back of her neck. After the confusion, Marisa and the children were released.
Ten minutes after receiving the blow to the head, Marisa began to feel bad. She passed out and was taken to the hospital ICU in Cidade de Deus. Transferred to the Salgado Filho municipal hospital, she died on Monday morning.
DOG ACCOMPANIES BURIAL
With the testimony of three witnesses, who confirmed the assaults on Marisa and the young people, the 32nd precinct’s chief, Rodolfo Waldeck, awaits the necropsy of the woman’s body, which will indicate if the butt caused Marisa’s death. He is investigating the crime of torture against the couple, who have already taken a forensic examination. The PMs involved in the case should be heard next week.
Marisa was buried yesterday in the Pechincha Cemetery, in Jacarepaguá. The day before, the burial was canceled by agents of the 32nd precinct. Police wanted the body to go through the necropsy at the Medical-Legal Institute (IML).
About a hundred people, including relatives and friends, accompanied the farewell of Marisa, who owns a grocery store in Cidade de Deus. Her pet dog, the mutt Luís Carlos, came on its own on the bus that took the community residents to the graveyard. During the burial, the animal stayed at the coffin’s feet the whole time. It only left after Marisa’s body was buried. According to relatives of the victim, Luís Carlos has been with the family for ten years.
“It was a great cowardly act. She was a warrior woman, who did everything for her children,” said a relative.
Source: Só Fatos
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