THE BRAZILIAN BOT

DistritoFederal

THE HUNT FOR LÁZARO

❗️ We're not sure we're going to have any more updates, but if we do, we'll repost it all.

The police of the State of #Goias (with the help of the federal police) caught a guy named #LazaroBarbosa. Lázaro was 32 and was running away after killing an entire family. Due to his known skills for survival in the wilderness, the hunt lasted incredible 20 days. He was caught before yesterday, June 28th. At some point, more than 400 police officers were allegedly involved in the operation to catch him.

This family murder and this long hunt is a direct result of the broken judicial system in Brazil. Lázaro's first two crimes were murders and they happened back in 2007. Since then and before the murder of the family, he committed over ten more crimes, including robbery, illegal carry, and rape. In 2013, he was deemed an irreversible psychopath. He accumulated more than 30 crimes, including 1 rape and 7 murders. 11 others (among the 30 but other than the 8 just mentioned) were life threatening crimes.

Lázaro grew up working in farming and he learned how to survive in the wilderness. He gave an example of this after his first two serious crimes, which were two murders He fled into the wilderness and was able to survive there for 15 days.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS SINCE THE MURDER OF CEILÂNDIA'S FAMILY: – JUNE SIXTH: Lázaro commits a mass murder in a rural area of #Ceilandia, #DistritoFederal, known as #JoaodeSantoCristo. He forces his way into a country house, kills a 48-year-old father and his 21 and 14-year-old sons. Then he takes the wife hostage. He cuts her hair, rapes her, and kills her. The body is found naked in a ditch. – JUNE EIGHTH: Police start searching for Lázaro. – JUNE NINTH: Lázaro calls his mother for the last time. He hangs up when his mother tells him her phone is tapped, but before hanging up he says, “IT'S VERY HARD. I CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT. I CAN'T LIVE ANYMORE. MY LIFE IS OVER.” – JUNE TENTH: Lázaro invades another country house where he demands he is cooked food. He watches TV, smokes a joint, and demands that the family smokes with him. He leaves 4 hours later. – JUNE THIRTEENTH: He steals a car from a farm (or country house, not clear), takes the highway, but there is a line of cars passing through a roadblock. He leaves the car and goes into the wilderness. Police find a gun and ammunition in the car. At this point, there are allegedly more than 200 officers in his pursuit. A security from a country house near there calls the police and says he thinks Lázaro could pass by anytime soon and that the police could stand by there, but before police arrive, Lázaro shows up. The security warns him not to enter, another guy who was with the securiity says he was going to call police, but then Lázaro opens fire. The security fires back. Before fleeing, Lázaro allegedly says, “DAMN! YOU HIT ME, BUT I'LL KILL YOU.” The security responds by saying he'll kill him if he steps into the property. He says Lázaro is limping, but he is still able to run away. – JUNE FOURTEENTH: Lázaro exchanges shots with a country house security and is allegedly hit, but if he really was (and this would mean this was not the first hit he takes), it doesn't keep him from fleeing. Some police officers eventually catch up with him and shots are fired. A police officer is grazed by a bullet in the face. Police believe Lázaro was hit and could be arrested soon, but this information is not confirmed and Lázaro is anything but near being arrested. – JUNE SEVENTEENTH: Allegedly, 400 police officers are on his pursuit. Lázaro is found hiding himself in a country house by some officers, shots are exchanged, Lázaro gets shot, is seen limping, but still flees. This would be a third hit he takes. TBB thinks that, if every account of him being hit is true, he's quite lucky. – JUNE TWENTY-SECOND: Lázaro is able to steal bread and oil from a country house. He covers some distance along a shallow river to avoid his odor from being picked up by police dogs. Later in the afternoon, a car is found burned next to a highway. Police are investigating if it was used by Lázaro. At about 9pm, the security of a country house (TBB doesn't know if this security is a different one) notices someone forcing the door knob. He shoots through the door and the person on the other side shoots back. The shooting from outside stops. The security can hear the footsteps of someone running away. He opens the door and tries to spot the intruder, but sees no one. Police are informed and head to the country house. – JUNE TWENTY-THIRD: A man is mistaken with Lázaro and is beaten up. A country house security says he and Lázaro allegedly exchanged shots. A phone app especifically designed to help sort out tip calls and identify their location starts operating. Police ask citizens to avoid prank calls and to avoid calling to give tips on how the police should handle the case. They urge people to give only tips that can help track down Lázaro. The app only operates within a range of 60 miles in order to avoid calls away from the region Lázaro is believed to be. – JUNE TWENTY-FOURTH: The number of police officers involved in the pursuit is said to be less than 300. Lázaro's mother and wife are, along with two lawyers, negotiating the terms of a surrender so that Lázaro can be assured he won't be hurt. There are roadblocks stopping every single vehicle in several roads, but it is intensified on the BR-070 between the city of #CocalzinhodeGoias and the border with #DistritoFederal. – JUNE TWENTY-FIFTH: Police see from a helicopter a man following another one out of a country house and one of them entering the woods. Police ask the owner of this country house to have access to his land but they are denied, which raises a suspicion. They happen to be Lázaro's ex-boss and the latter's country house security. One woman tells police she saw someone walking near the house of those arrested and police strongly believe to be Lázaro, so they decide to block all roads nearby and start surrounding the area. They also arrest that boss and his security under suspicion of deliberately helping Lázaro with food and shelter. One of the shotguns used by Lárazo at some point is found with one of the two. The two along with Lázaro are believed to be partners in crime, and that they and others might be involved in other crimes. They seem to have helped Lázaro for 5 days. At around 8pm (Brazilian time), Lázaro enters a bakery, doesn't say anything, looks at some bags of chips, grabs a couple ones, looks at them as if thinking if that's what he wants. He avoids looking straight or at people's face. The owner, a lady, and another woman suspect of his behavior and think the guy looks like Lázaro. They can't help themselves but get nervous. One goes into a room to call police. Lázaro notices the ladies are ansty and thinks they recognize him. He drops everything and leaves the place in a hurry. This bakery is near a highway and only about 900 feet from where a group of police officers, part of the operation, are stationed. – JUNE TWENTY-SIXTH: A different country house security notices that someone had broken into the house when he gets there for work, but he and the house owner say nothing was stolen. The owner along with his wife go to the police to tell the story and a police team heads to their country house. – JUNE TWENTY-SEVENTH: Between 7 and 8pm, Lázaro tries to break into his ex-mother-in-law's home, but before he succeeds, he realizes police is already on his way following an anonymous tip, so he gives up and flees. During this fleeing, he passes by other homes and some people recognize him. They recognize him not only because of his exposure on the media, but because he's known by many residents since it's a region that was part of his everyday life. Police eventually catch up, but Lázaro threatens to shoot them in the face and flees into the wilderness. – JUNE TWENTY-EIGHTH: Early morning, still dark, and in an area near where his ex-mother-in-law lives, police get closer to Lázaro, Lázaro again threatens to shoot them at their faces. At some moment, there is a shooting, but neither the officers nor Lázaro are hit. The officers stand down, wait for backup and wait for the sun to come up. This further debilitates Lázaro physically and mentally, since he hadn't eaten and drunk and he had barely slept since his ex-boss and this one's security were arrested and could no longer provide him with food and shelter. After the sun is out, one of the helicopters is flying lower, indicating they had Lázaro's tail. Most of the police who are engaged in the hunt in the wilderness are the military since they have more experience in this environment, while the civil police are backing them up in the surroundings, like roads and properties. Police finally engage in a second attempt to catch him, which prompted Lázaro to threaten shooting at them, and he does it. Given Lázaro's skills, danger, and determination to die fighting (which he had already expressed), police don't want to take chances, and they fire more than 120 shots back at him. No police officer is injured during the shooting, but Lázaro was hit dozens of times, dying on spot.

❗️❗️ TBB notes that this account report has several gaps (even days are missing), and that some pieces of information might need further confirmation, but hopes it could have given you some idea of this case.


  • President #Bolsonaro and the state attorney-general requested the #SupremeCourt (#STF) to rule on the unconstitutionality of lockdown and curfew measures that cities and states are putting up again. A similar request, but directed to other states in March, was rejected by the STF, and this makes many believe they will reject this new one too. But, a lot of other people are expecting that the STF is going to rule against the measures this time because the request is better formulated—an observation made by a judge-minister—and also because Bolsonaro said a couple of weeks ago that he has a decree ready to be signed that would force a military action against any city or state administrator that puts a curfew or lockdown in action. #pandemic #covid #lockdown
  • #MarcoAurelio de Melo, one of the #SupremeCourt's (#STF) judge-ministers, expressed opposition to the Senate #pandemic commission hearing some governors due to accusations of federal money misuse. His opinion (which he isn't supposed to be giving) is based on the idea that the responsability to form commissions to investigate their administration is of the local houses. On the other side, the argument is that the local houses seem to be under total control of their administrators, either a governor or a mayor, and not a single commission to investigate any misuse of money was formed in any of the 27 states or in any of the 5,000 plus cities across the country. #covid
  • The #SupremeCourt (#STF) voted 7-4 to deny the federal police the request to investigate the STF Judge-Minister and President Dias #Toffoli for receiving 4 million reals to help politicians in election processes while he was the president of the #SupremeElectoralCourt (#STE). No one is surprised by this decision.
  • The #Bolsonaro administration is trying to pass a bill that forces fuel taxes to be shown separately on the consumers' receipt, and not just that, but also which entity is charging that amount, if it is the distributor, the gov't, or the state. The bill has been facing difficulty to go for a vote due to pressure from governors (the #SupremeCourt (#STF) has also been making it difficult) since they are charging their taxes on top of the final price and based on the final price, which is considered unconstitutional.
  • It is believed President #Bolsonaro's last motorcycle rally in #RiodeJaneiro reached 2.6 miles in length.
  • The president of the #Senate commission to investigate money misuse during the #pandemic, Senator #OmarAziz, presented a bill that would give doctors 3 years of jail time if they ever prescribed any medicine for #COVID except the vaccine. President #Bolsonaro decided to make it public on his social media, and the backlash was so intense that Aziz requested its permanent dismissal just 30 minutes later.
  • The governor of #SaoPaulo, João #Doria, decided to extent the business reopening transition from May 31st to June 14th, and in some cities, even essential businesses, like, pharmacies and supermarkets, are closed. #RibeiraoPreto is one of these cities. Just a reminder, cities in the State of São Paulo, the City of São Paulo mainly, allowed the public transportation, buses and trains, to operate at a lower capacity and thus crowded for over a year. #pandemic #covid
  • A movement that seeks to sue the City of #SaoPaulo for keeping schools closed, called 'Portas Abertas' ('Open Doors'), has encouraged a broader demand for other mayors and for governors to be called into accountability for not letting cities open their schools. The argument for this is that there are studies worldwide suggesting that opening schools, even if partially, does not represent a considerable risk, especially the earlier education. They claim that businesses that do not have the same kind of comprehensive study and that serve others than children were allowed to open. 10 out of the 27 states (one is not a state, but a federal district, #DistritoFederal, just like #Washington DC) have partially opened schools, but Open Doors claims this opening is too restrictive to be considered adequate. For instance, they are letting children of health workers and children in serious circumstances (for instance, homeless or abused) to attend it. In #Brazil, there is this Law of Accountability, which was the one on which ex-President #Dilma's impeachment was based. Among the reasons for a public administrator to break this law is abuse of power, and keeping schools closed when there has been neither consensus for that nor a single standard being applied can be considered abuse of power. #covid #pandemic #lockdown
  • The #Congress probe into #COVID-related actions approved the hearing of 9 governors; from #Amapa, #Amazon, #DistritoFederal, #Para, #Piaui, #Rondonia, #Roraima, #SantaCatarina, and #Tocantins. #WilsonWitzel, the impeached ex-governor of #RiodeJaneiro, will be heard too. Other people are going to be heard as well. The governor of Piaui is a member of a consortium composed by some Northeastern states, and there is a separate probe into this consortium. Some representatives wanted mayors to be heard, but none was included. #pandemic
  • The #Bolsonaro administration is following the steps of #Florida Governor #DeSantis and has already prepared a bill that prohibits social media platforms from removing accounts and posts solely based on their terms of use. The bill was written by a team in the Ministry (Department) of Culture, and a subsecretary called National Secretary of Copyrights and Intellectual Property would be in charge of its effectiveness. If it's signed, social media platforms can receive from a warning up to a fine of up to 10% of the company's revenue in Brazil in the year prior to the offense. #socialmedia #censorship #bigtech

  • The mayor of the State of #SaoPaulo, #JoaoDoria, wants luxury cars seized by the police to be used as police cars. Some people have expressed disapproval for the idea of stopping selling luxury cars in auctions and start spending money on maintaining them as police cars. A regular luxury car, which, on average, has a lower mileage, is already very expensive to maintain, and there is also the higher expense to make any adaptations to the car, since it will be done on demand.
  • The mayor of #Florianopolis, #GeanLoureiro, decided to have spend some vacation time in #Cancun, and while he was there he decided to restart a #lockdown period, and that's when his trip became big news. After getting back, he apologized for the trip. He wrote he needed some vacation and he thought having online meetings would be enough to make up his physical absence. He said he couldn't get back sooner because he had to wait for a COVID test result in order to fly and because he had a hard time to reschedule his flight for sooner.
  • Despite the fact that the #pandemic resulted in a lot of businesses losing revenue or closing, thus cities and states seeing their tax revenue go down dangerously, these ones finished 2020 with 94% more money on average. The only explanation for this, so far, is the billions and billions in relief money they have received from the gov't. What could be behind this lack of expenses in such a time so many people are in need of material and financial support while they are, on average, generating less money in taxes? #corruption #covid
  • The 46th Independent Military Police Campaign of the State of #Bahia posted a photo of a bag with 5 long neck bottles of beer inside, saying it was seized from a citizen who was seen outside during the period of #curfew and taken to the police station. Many people expressed outrage, since Bahia has one of the highest (real) crime rates in Brazil and they found disgusting the fact that a highly trained police was proud enough of such an arrest to show it on Instagram.
  • The Medicine Regional Council of [the State of] #DistritoFederal (#CRM) published a one-page letter titled “PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AGAINST THE #LOCKDOWN,” and the first paragraph starts with, “THE CRM-DF IS AGAINST THE LOCKDOWN AS AN EFFECTIVE MEASURE FOR THE CONTROL OF SARS-COV-2.” #covid

  • A video of a street vendor being approach by the military police and being put into the trunk of a police car Thursday night in #Bahia went viral. He was not supposed to be out at that time due to the #curfew. He said he lost the last bus and no more buses had come since then. At a certain moment, one of the officers forcibly approaches him and puts him in the trunk of the police vehicle while the vendor says, “DON'T HURT ME!” What's shocking about the video is that the officer's approach is nearly the same as if approaching a criminal, which very much makes you believe the guy is a criminal (if you didn't know the context). Another thing that worries is the fact that another officer, when he realizes there's someone recording it, approaches the person and says, “IF THIS GENTLEMAN IS BEING FILMED [BY YOU] YOU'RE GOING TO BE A WITNESS. COME ON [WITH US].” #covid #covid19 #coronavirus #abuseofpower
  • The #Senate approved a bill that authorizes private companies to buy vaccines. It's now headed to the #Congress. If it passes, President #Bolsonaro may veto it because the bill removes the responsibility for side effects of the #vaccine from the makers and put it in the government. #covid #covid19 #coronavirus
  • Some residents of the city of #Araraquara in the State of #SaoPaulo, which is under a full #lockdown period, have reported some food shortage and some price hike. #covid #covid19 #coronavirus #brazil
  • Keeping the annoying and uncalled-for habit of giving interviews nonstop, one of the judge-ministers of the #SupremeCourt (#STF), #EdsonFachin, listed the seven symptoms of a corrupt democracy during an interview for the leftist, liberal, progressive, #FolhadeSaoPaulo (#Folha). They are [with comments], “REMILITARIZATION OF A CIVIL GOVERNMENT” [the military regime was the most stable and orderly period #Brazil had ever experienced in a long time, failed by the 'positivist' mindset and old-anti-#communism combat tactics, while the “civil” government that started in 1988 never made the country any better, so this argument per se doesn't say much], “INTIMIDATION [BY CALLS TO SHUT DOWN THE OTHER POWERS—#CONGRESS, #SENATE, AND #STF” [there was never a direct call to shut them down, but to the possibility of them being shut down due to their unconstitutional behavior, and since #Bolsonaro was elected, no actual attempt has been made and no plan to do so has ever been exposed], “MINIMIZATION OF THE VALUE OF VOTING” [the judge-ministers have been reacting positively to making the voting process even more digital, like voting by phone, which makes it even more prone to fraud, while #Bolsonaro, his allies, and his supporters support the opposite, walking toward more auditability, even if it means partially using paper], “ATTACKS AGAINST THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS” [it was the STF who censored a news outlet back on 2019, who ordered the arrest of a journalist twice in 2019 and 2020, who ordered the conservative site #TercaLivre to be mass suspended on social media platforms in 2021, who ordered the arrest of a congressman for a thought crime and also demanded all his social media accounts to be suspended in 2021; no such restricting actions were ever taken by the President #Bolsonaro; the most he has done was to harshly criticize the big old media, call them corrupt, unfair, evil, disgraceful], “ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE SALES OF WEAPONS AND THUS OF VIOLENCE” [violence in Brazil increased after the gun ban in 2005, and since #Bolsonaro was elected and a few of his pro-guns decrees passed, along with other measures, violence has decreased; also, violence numbers in countries were fire weapons are allowed don't support the judge-minister's reasoning], “NORMALIZING ADMINISTRATIVE AGENTS' CORRUPTION” [one of his administration's hallmark is the nearly total elimination of corruption, at least at the highest level] and “REFUSAL TO ACCEPT ELECTION RESULTS” [the president never refused to accept the elections' results, but expressed that if the vote can't be audited, fraud is possible].
  • The tax over imported #fireweapons was going to be zero this year, but the judge-minister of the #SupremeCourt (#STF) #EdsonFachin issued an injunction order halting the decree. Another judge-minister commented that zeroing the tax and thus increasing the sales of fire weapons in #Brazil is a “RISK FOR THE STABILITY OF DEMOCRACY.” Once again, the STF ruling over things it shouldn't. #guns #gunsales #gunban #disarmament #selfdefense #fachin
  • As of February 26th, the states that were imposing the lockdown were #Bahia, #DistritoFederal, #Maranhao, #Paraiba, #Pernambuco, #Piaui, #RioGrandedoSul, #Rondonia, and #SaoPaulo. Aside from the lockdown, these states' governors have another thing in common: They strongly oppose #Bolsonaro. #covid #covid19 #coronavirus
  • During a speech and while he was talking about the stronger #lockdown measures imposed by some governors, President #Bolsonaro said, “THE RELIEF CHECK WILL BE COMING FOR A COUPLE MORE MONTHS. THE GOVERNOR THAT DESTROYS JOBS SHOULD PAY FOR THE RELIEF CHECK. [...] THOSE WHO CLOSE EVERYTHING AND DESTROY JOBS ARE GOING AGAINST THE WISH OF THEIR PEOPLE.” #covid #covid19 #coronavirus
  • Writer and philosopher #OlavodeCarvalho is in hospital in the US with #pneumonia.
  • Leaked messages exchanged by #LavaJato Operation prosecutors show that they had illegal access to the President #Bolsonaro family's personal information, including fiscal, right after he was elected. They laugh in several moments. The data was accessed by the COAF ('Council for Financial Activities Control') and the MP ('Public Ministry' or 'Prosecution Office'). #RobertoLeonel was in control of the COAF back then, he was assigned by #SergioMoro, and the latter got very upset when COAF was taken out of the control of his ministry by President Bolsonaro. #Leonel is behind the leaks from COAF, and he is referred in one of the messages by one prosecutor as “HE IS 1000.” 'To be 1000' is an expression that means a person helped someone else greatly; it's like saying, “He was so helpful that saying he was 100% helpful is not enough. Maybe 1000%?#carwash #deltandallagnol #moro
  • The city of #Buzios, in the State of #RiodeJaneiro, reached zero hospitalizations for #COVID. They bet strongly on prevention, not withholding themselves from making use of several medications that can possibly help avoid cases from getting too serious, like #ivermectin #hydroxychloroquine, vitamin D, zinc, etc. This example contrasts with other cities, where the number of too serious cases surpassed the number of hospital rooms. #covid19 #coronavirus
  • Some #Brazil(ian) states and some cities in some states are going for a #curfew in order to stop or slow down the spread of the virus. According to the #Constitution, the curfew can only be allowed in two situations: State of Defense and State of Emergency. The State of Defense allows for the curfew in isolated areas, as long as there is a social unrest or a natural disaster that's big enough to result in lack of control by the local authorities. It can last 30 days and be extended for 30 more days. If the lack of control persists, then the State of Emergency is the next step. In this case, it allows for the curfew to be extended to areas where everything is apparently calm, and several constitutional rights are suspended, but in order for a curfew to start, the president (not a mayor or a governor) needs the #Congress' approval—this is to show you how extreme a curfew is. Beyond this point, the military intervention is the call. The virus and the rulings it has caused to be issued have resulted in all the rules regarding curfews being broken, in cities and states making decisions about putting it in place regardless of the government's direction. In other words, mayors and governors are breaking the Constitution, paving the way for a federal intervention; but, will there be? And, how long will unconstitutional actions continue to be taken for? #covid #covid19 #coronavirus
  • The #Congress is discussing a bill called [Speech] Immunity Bill. It has the purpose of clarifying where the limit of the #SupremeCourt (#STF) is when it comes to its power to warrant the arrest of a congressperson for a thought crime. In its original form, the bill made it clear only the Congress Ethical Counsel could apply a punishment, but some parties, like #PT, leftist, is critical of the bill for totally leaving the judiciary out of it. At least one congressman, the infamous and often ridiculed #KimKataguiri (another politician who did a great job pre-#Bolsonaro, campaigned for him and was elected in great part because of him, but ultimately flipped 180°), came to the point of asking the STF to interfere in the Congress' affairs by ordering that this bill be prohibited from even being discussed, and one judge-minister was already chosen to analyze this possibility. #freedomofspeech