Bolsonaro to Pardon Police Officers Involved in Violent Massacres in the 1990s

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday, August 31st, that he intends to pardon police officers who took part in the Eldorado dos Carajás and the Carandiru massacres, as well as those involved in the “Bus 174” shooting in Rio de Janeiro.

Bolsonaro met with a number of journalists during lunch at the Army headquarters, but the conversation could not be recorded or annotated.

Throughout the week, the president had already mentioned the plan to pardon police officers and that he would include “surprising names,” without explaining whom he was referring to.

Bolsonaro is calling on all state police commanders to list those police officers who could benefit from this. The pardon is an act of clemency on behalf of the government. It is a way to terminate the enforcement of a criminal sentence.

According to O Globo, Bolsonaro said that he would grant a pardon “to those who are eligible”. In connection with the Carandiru massacre, the president also said that if Commander Ubiratan Guimarães were alive, he would also benefit from this pardon.

Ubiratan was the commander of an action resulting in the death of 111 prisoners in the Carandiru prison in October 1992.

Bolsonaro also recalled the case of TV hostess Ana Hickman, who suffered an assassination attempt by a fan in Belo Horizonte. “I don’t want to provide details, but there are cases which, if I may, I will include. Like the policemen who were involved in the Carandiru case, in Bus174, Eldorado dos Carajás. And, if there’s still any pending issues, the case of Ana Hickmann.”

Events

The Carandiru massacre took place on Friday, 2 October 1992, in Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil, when military police stormed the penitentiary following a prison riot. The massacre, which left 111 prisoners dead, is considered a major human rights violation in the history of Brazil.

Police were deployed to contain a riot in cellblock 9 of the Carandiru prison in São Paulo. The unit was overcrowded, with more than 7,000 prisoners in 3,250 places. The outburst may have been motivated by a fight between prisoners. A staff of 330 police officers took part in the action. In all, 111 people were killed. Survivors of the massacre reported that the policemen split up across the prison floors and shot several detainees.

In Eldorado dos Carajás, municipality, in southern Pará state, on April 17, 1996, 19 members of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST – Landless Workers Movement) were shot by Pará state military police. The state secretary of public security, Paulo Sette Câmara, had ordered the police to clear the highway “at any cost”.

The State Police were deployed to clear the road. While the landless used sticks and stones to contain the officers’ action, the police retaliated with gunfire. The clash left 19 dead and more than 60 wounded.

In the Bus 174 case, Sandro do Nascimento held 11 passengers hostage on June 12th, 2000. The robbery was followed live on TV nationwide for four and a half hours. After hours of negotiations with police officers of the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE), Sandro, with a gun pointed at the head of teacher Geisa Gonçalves, left the vehicle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO1oiYwS5YY

A policeman fired, wounding Sandro, who in turn killed the teacher. He was taken to the hospital alive, but died of suffocation en route.

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