Brazil’s government and police are investigating whether the massacre of doctors in Rio de Janeiro was a political crime

The Brazilian Federal Government has opened an investigation into the possibility that three doctors from São Paulo were shot with dozens of shots early this Thursday morning in a bar in Rio de Janeiro in front of the hotel where they were staying and where they would participate. this Thursday the fair at the international congress was declared a political crime. This hypothesis is being explored with caution, but it is one line of inquiry that is gaining momentum, largely because one of the doctors shot dead in the attack had strong family ties to a pair of left-wing federal MPs who were active against militias and drug traffickers. in Rio, January.

Orthopedist Diego Ralph Souza Bonfim, 35, one of the fatal attack victims, is the brother of federal deputy Samia Bonfim, of the Party of Socialism and Freedom, PSOL, elected by Sao Paulo, and her husband’s brother-in-law. , also federal deputy Glauber Braga, from the same party, but elected by Rio de Janeiro. Glauber has a strong political presence in militia-dominated areas and suffers constant death threats from both these paramilitary groups, made up of corrupt police officers and hit men, and from drug gangs with ties to organized crime.

The hypothesis, which has been put forward very cautiously for now since there is still no evidence to support it, is that Diego was targeted by assassins in retaliation for the actions of Samia and mainly Glauber against organized crime and the militias that dominate much of the territory Rio de Janeiro. Until the end of the morning, Brazilian time, a more convincing hypothesis was not observed, especially since the victims devoted themselves exclusively to medicine; As far as we know, they did not have any serious connections with Rio de Janeiro and had just arrived in the city, which also excluded the possibility of enmity with anyone.

Showing that this hypothesis is not just speculation and is being taken seriously, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flavio Dino, sent the Secretary of State for Justice, Ivan Capelli, to Rio de Janeiro at dawn this Thursday to closely monitor the case. Dino also ordered the Federal Police, under his leadership, to provide the judicial police of Rio de Janeiro with all the necessary support, be it equipment or human resources, without interfering, for the time being, directly in the investigation, which is the responsibility of the agents from Rio de Janeiro. .

The Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia is also taking action, with lawmakers expected this Thursday to demand that the investigation be federalized, meaning it be left under the jurisdiction of Rio de Janeiro police, the target of complaints about a lack of structure. and, to make matters worse, it is infected by people associated with the militias and becomes the responsibility of the Federal Police. Police in Sao Paulo, the city where three doctors worked in the orthopedic sector of the Hospital das Clínicas, the largest hospital in South America affiliated with the University of Sao Paulo, also sent a team consisting of two experienced inspectors and four agents early in the morning to intensify the investigation in Rio. in this case at the request of the local police.

Three doctors were brutally machine-gunned around 1 a.m. this Thursday local time, 5 a.m. in Lisbon, as they socialized in a bar in front of the Windsor Hotel in Barra da Tijuca, west of Rio de Janeiro, where they had to take part. this Thursday at the international orthopedic congress with the participation of doctors from different parts of the world. Three criminals suddenly got out of a white car, walked straight to the table where four doctors from São Paulo were located (another was seriously wounded), and fired dozens of shots at them.

The bar was crowded at the time, mostly with doctors from different countries who took advantage of the very warm night to chat a little with each other in a place that seemed safe: a bar in front of the hotel and in an upscale area of ​​Rio. It was clearly an execution, a contracted crime, as the Rio de Janeiro police have already determined, since nothing was stolen, which excludes the possibility of robbery, and the criminals completely ignored the crowd around the doctors, without attacking or even threatening. anyone else at the scene.