Carandiru massacre

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The Carandiru massacre followed an inmate uprising at the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo , the prison in São Paulo , on October 2, 1992. Members of the state police killed in the crackdown 111 prisoners. The prison, which operated until 2002, was temporarily the largest detention center in South America.

background

The prison, built by the architect Samuel de Neves, was a model of the modern penal system until the 1940s. The increasing overcrowding was tried in 1956 with new buildings. There were now 3250 detention places available. However, up to 8,000 people were always detained. Carandiru was notorious for violence, gang crime, drug use, corruption and the extreme brutality of the guards. It was the largest prison in Latin America.

revolt

In October 1992, over 7,000 people were detained in Carandiru - more than double the official capacity. 2000 prisoners were housed in the block for first-time offenders and remand prisoners. There a revolt broke out among the inmates on October 2, 1992.

The police reacted quickly and ordered units from the State Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo to storm the prison with 330 police officers ready to fire. Although the inmates had hoisted white flags and thrown their knives in the courtyard, the commanding Coronel Uribatan Guimarães ordered his officers to open fire. The officers shot 102 prisoners. Most of them had bullets in the head and chest. Another 9 prisoners died of stab wounds. 87 prisoners and 22 police officers were injured.

Legal processing

The legal processing then dragged on for more than two decades. The then police commander Ubiratan Guimarães had to answer in court for allegedly giving the order to shoot. In 2006 he was acquitted and was now a member of parliament. A few months after the verdict, he was murdered by strangers.

In four separate trials, 23 police officers were sentenced to 156 years' imprisonment each in April 2013, 25 police officers to 624 years each in August 2013, 9 police officers to 96 years each in March 2014, another police officer to 104 years and finally in April 2014 15 policemen, each with 48 years in prison. Under Brazilian law, convicted inmates can remain in prison for a maximum of thirty years.

Thomas Faltheuer, long-time head of the Böll Foundation in Brazil, said in retrospect in 2011: “The governor at the time, Fleury Filho , Governor of São Paulo, was considered a serious candidate for the office of president. His political career has been essentially ruined by Carandiru. This is just a small indicator that it was an event that had far-reaching consequences in the Brazilian political system. "

Reactions

Amnesty International pointed out that Germany was using Heckler & Koch to equip the Brazilian security forces. During the storming, the officers shot the prisoners among other things with the submachine gun MP5 . Based on the serial numbers of the submachine guns, Amnesty was able to prove that the weapons had been delivered to Brazil from the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Carandiru massacre is the theme of the song Manifest from the album Chaos AD (1993) by the band Sepultura .

Commemoration

In 2014, human rights organizations commemorated the Carandiru massacre on the 22nd anniversary with a memorial march against police violence through São Paulo. On October 2, 2014, several hundred people walked through the federal capital.

Publications

  • Hector Babencos (2003) (film): Carandiru , based on the book of the doctor Drauzio Varella.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matthias Matussek, São Paulo: Brazil's cruelest prison: Hell, blown up in seven seconds. In: Spiegel Online . December 10, 2002, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Focus on Latin America: Brazil. Commemoration of the Carandiru massacre 2014 [1] , viewed Jan 26, 2016
  3. ↑ http://www.dw.com/de/gef%C3%A4ngnismassaker-prozess-nach-20-jahren/a-16754196
  4. ↑ Quoted from DLF http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/es-roch-nach-tod-und-blut.871.de.html?dram:article_id=222461 , viewed 19 Jan 2016
  5. ↑ http://www.amnesty-braunschweig.de/archiv/180204.html

Coordinates: 23 ° 30 ′ 30 ″  S , 46 ° 37 ′ 25 ″  W