{"id":31814,"date":"2021-05-12T16:47:53","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T16:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/?post_type=noticia&p=31814"},"modified":"2021-05-21T21:19:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T21:19:48","slug":"crimes-of-may-impunity-marks-15-years-since-one-of-the-biggest-massacres-in-sao-paulo","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/crimes-of-may-impunity-marks-15-years-since-one-of-the-biggest-massacres-in-sao-paulo\/","title":"Crimes of May: impunity marks 15 years since one of the biggest massacres in S\u00e3o Paulo","content":"

\u201cI died four years ago. The gunshot that hit my son, hit my heart first. Every bullet that entered his body, entered mine too,\u201d says Debora Maria da Silva, one of the founders of the Mothers of May Movement. Her son, Edson Rog\u00e9rio Silva dos Santos, was 29 when he became one of the victims of the \u201cCrimes of May\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 12 May 2006, a criminal faction sparked a series of coordinated rebellions and outside the prisons, encouraged attacks on public agents. Between 12 and 21 May, members of death squads led a \u00b4wave of response\u00b4, marked by \u201cintense violence, summary executions, massacres, hundreds of murders and a number of disappearances,\u201d according to the report. The reprisal, which mainly affected the periphery and many people who did not have any links to the faction, came to be known as \u201cCrimes of May\u201d. It left more than 500 dead and 110 injured, according to <\/span>an evaluation carried out by Conectas and the Rio de Janeiro Federal University<\/strong>. <\/span><\/a>8.6 civilian deaths to every public agent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe same police officer who killed my husband, also killed by son.\u201d Silva states. \u201cWe can see that there is a plan to kill the undesirables. And this plan has a colour, class and gender.\u00a0 It affects the men more, but it also affects the women, the mothers. We must fight against this rifle that is aimed at black youths\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was an important statement. As well as helping to found a movement that seeks retractions for the murders and to make demands heard, sometimes in the music of the rapper Emicida, Silva also became a researcher. In 2018, she presented the results\u00a0<\/span>of a study she took part in<\/a><\/strong>, along with researchers at Unifesp and Oxford University. According to the\u00a0<\/span>findings<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 that analysed 60 Crimes of May deaths in the Baixada Santista \u2013 74.5% of the victims were young, between 15 and 29 years old; 91% were men and 62% died from gunshots to the chest and head. The research also verified that policy inquiries were prematurely closed, showing that the crimes have gone unpunished.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Thayn\u00e1 Yaredy, Advisor on the Facing Institutional Violence Programme at Conectas, this high lethality and indifference to solving the crimes shows how the state has failed to uphold the fundamental guarantees of the victims and their families.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crucified by the violence<\/b><\/p>\n

Four of the hundreds of victims do not register in the homicide statistics. These are the forced disappearances, who lost even the right to die. Paulo Alexandre Gomes, Paulinho, 23 years old is one of them. \u201cWe are left with the sense of loss and the hope that we will find out what happened. But who\u00b4s going to tell us?\u201d Mother Maria das Gra\u00e7as Gomes, asked the newspaper, \u00a0<\/span>O Estado de S.Paulo<\/a><\/strong>, in 2016. \u201cI think God decided to take over and I don\u00b4t know where he is. One day I\u00b4ll find out. I don\u00b4t know when, but I will find out.\u201d She hopes, recalling the murder of her daughter, at 17 years of age. \u201cWe all have a mission here on Earth. Mine was to have three children \u2013 two of them were crucified by violence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n