Undercover journalists tortured by Rio militia

RIO de JANEIRO, Brazil — When several Brazilian journalists decided to go undercover here in May to report on life in one of the hundreds of slums around Rio, they thought they had chosen carefully.

The slum they picked — Batan — was under the control of a militia that had expelled a drug gang in September. The journalists assumed a slum under the thumb of a gun-toting militia, which included off-duty policemen, would be safer than one led by drug dealers.

They were wrong. And what they lived through has become a public scandal that has focused attention on the growing danger posed by these militias, which have supplanted drug gangs as the violent overlords who run many of Rio's slums and their illicit enterprises, often with links to corrupt police and politicians.

On the night of May 14, six ninja-hooded men entered the rented house where a 28-year-old reporter for the daily O Dia, a photographer and a driver were staying. They captured the three, with a neighbor, and tortured them for more than six hours.

They made them play Russian roulette, nearly suffocated them with plastic bags, delivered electric shocks and slapped and kicked them. They threatened to sexually assault the reporter, who is a woman, and kill them, according to written accounts the reporter and the 31-year-old driver gave Draco, the Rio police organized-crime unit.

Brazil is undergoing an economic boom that is lifting millions out of poverty. But here in Rio, the incident, which came to light through a series of articles in O Dia, has become a prominent sign of the strains on this city, which is plagued by violence and a notoriously corrupt police force.

Despite Brazil's economic growth, Rio's slums, or favelas, have proliferated, and now might number more than 800. The militias have multiplied with them, as battles with drug gangs have taken a toll on legitimate police forces.

The estimated 60 to 100 militias have powerful connections and are often intertwined not only with the city's police but also with politicians, who offer them safe harbor in exchange for ensuring votes or cash from residents.

Last week the police arrested Davi Liberato de Araújo, 31, suspected of being the No. 2 in the militia hierarchy, in connection with torturing the journalists.

The journalists also identified the suspected militia leader, Odnei Fernando da Silva, 34, a former prison guard who also worked in a psychiatric hospital before joining the police force.

Da Silva, who was known to roam the favela in his black ninja mask, still faces charges of abusing a prisoner and attempted murder. He escaped before police could arrest him in connection with the torture and remains at large.

The journalists have not been named by any media publication and have not given any interviews. Alexandre Freeland, an editor at O Dia, asked The New York Times not publish their names, either. The journalists, he said, are in hiding outside Rio de Janeiro state for their safety.

During the torture, the militia members were careful to use techniques that did not leave visible marks, such as plastic bags to asphyxiate victims, said Claudio Ferraz, the chief of the Rio state police organized-crime unit, known as Draco. But the deep psychological scars were obvious. The photographer "was completely destroyed," the chief said. "You couldn't talk to him. He would look at his children, embrace them, and cry."

The journalists rented the small home in Batan in early May. They planned to live there for a month and write about the illegal economy in the slums, Freeland said.

They did not identify themselves as journalists. But somehow their cover was blown. On the night of May 14 a group of six militia members knocked on their door. Da Silva, the local leader, told the reporter she was under arrest for "false identification." The militia members quickly demanded any tape recordings and photos.

Not finding any in the house, they turned violent. The reporter told police they kicked her and played Russian roulette, pulling the trigger of a revolver twice.

The militia members then drove them around while threatening to make them consume a lot of cocaine before dumping them in the Fumace favela to be killed by drug dealers, the reporter told police.

After arriving at another, undisclosed location, more militia members arrived. They tortured the group for at least two more hours. They stripped the reporter and asked her if she had ever had sex with five men. She recalled a plastic sack being over her head for much of the torture, and she fainted several times, according to police records and sources.

They later drove the captives to a house where the photographer had stored his equipment and had him destroy any photographs of militia members. Finally, at 4:30 a.m., da Silva ordered the militia to release the four captives.