The question ”Where is Amarildo” is hanging on posters in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Under the question are pictures of a missing man who one day entered a police car for questioning. He was never to be seen again. Approximately 92,000 people have gone missing in Rio de Janeiro, with fifteen people going missing every day, according to www.streetpapers.org / IPS. Many cases are never resolved nor properly investigated, and the police are often suspects themselves.
On Sunday July 14th Amarildo de Souza was met by a group of 20 military police who said they needed to take him to the local Police Pacification Unit (UPP) for questioning. The UPPs main task is to drive out the drug trafficking gangs and to sustain police presence in the favelas. “There are a series of irregularities in what the police did,” Amnesty International adviser Jandira Queiroz told IPS. “If [de Souza] was wanted for questioning, he would have only had to go to the local police station, rather than UPP headquarters. These mistakes on the part of police merit investigation, in and of themselves.” Police say they let him go, and explained that there is no evidence of where he could be. Neither the UPP head- quarters’ surveillance cameras nor the GPS devices in the police cars that picked up de Souza were working the night when de Souza disappeared after he got carried into the police car.
Amnesty International asks its three million supporters worldwide to send letters to the state government and ministry of security calling for a thorough investigation, witness protection, and prosecution of the perpetrators. When people go missing in Brazil, police tend to stop investigating, Antônio Carlos Costa, the head of Rio de Paz, told IPS. “Thousands of people disappear and the authorities don’t worry about finding out what happened to them. Many cases are never even registered in police stations, and the police are among those who carry out this practice”, Costa said. According to Costa, the number of people who go missing is actually higher than the official figures. Amarildo’s family is not giving up finding him alive, although the feeling of in- security always is present. As Elisabeth Gomes, de Souza’s wife, said: “The UPP police took my husband away, and his documents. He went missing a month ago and I have no money. At least I want his bones, to bury them. I want an answer:
Where is Amarildo?”
