The Carandiru Massacre

I got myself a couple of dvds which I haven't had the chance to watch yet. I have a friend who works at the video store and I have free access to all movies there. :P There's one good movie I watched recently; Carandiru. Utterly depressing and cruel it is. The movie is in portugese and did I mention that it was based on a true story? Carandiru was a violent prison and the largest correctional facility in Latin America. The criminals were the ones who really ran Carandiru. The infamous day on October 2 1992 was a day that shocked the world. 300 policemen from the riot squad stormed the facility and brutally murdered 111 unarmed inmates. The Carandiru massacre.

What the hell? So what if they're from the riot squad? These inmates had only knives on them and they even surrendered those. Although they were bigger in numbers (4500 I think), they were not stupid enough to try and put up a fight against 300 policemen armed with guns. But still 111 of the inmates were not spared. According to witnesses and a forensic expert at the trial, many of the inmates were shot execution-style or from outside their cells as they hid behind their bed mattresses for protection. Many were found naked in an apparent sign of surrender. What shook me the most was how hopeless these inmates were.

No justice was done. No one spoke up until 2001. A Brazilian former police chief on trial accused of ordering the country's worst jail massacre has denied the charges, saying his men acted in self defence against 2,000 armed prisoners. Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes, who was in charge of the operation in 1992 to put down the prison riot, said the inmates died in a shoot-out with the police. He said "If our intention was to commit a massacre, then how come only 111 died?". If you ask me, he probably knew this day would come and killing more inmates would definitely land him in jail.

Is Brazil is prepared to clean up the poor human rights record of its military police? There was a 9 year delay. Charges were filed against Colonel Guimaraes in 1993, but the case was delayed for years, first because of red tape and later, between 1994 and 1998, because Mr Guimaraes enjoyed immunity as a Sao Paolo state legislator.

He was finally brought to trial on 29 November 2000 and convicted on June 30 2001. He was Sentenced to 632 years, six years each for the victims and 20 years for five attempted murders, despite Brazil's 30 year maximum sentence.

If the movie ended like how it ended for real, I'll probably not be that depressed watching it.