Every Two Days Stray Bullets Injure or Kill a person in Rio

05/16/2017 - 11h59

Evangelista Cordeiro da Silva, 71, was reading the news in front of his home when he was shot in the head. Sofia Braga, 2, was playing at a cafeteria when she was shot in the face.

A bullet clipped the shoulder of Liliam Famada, 31, an assistant at a daycare, while she was inside her classroom. These are three of the 66 cases of people who have been killed or injured by stray bullets in Rio de Janeiro.

On average, a stray bullet strikes a person every two days, according to a survey conducted by Folha. Out of those who are struck, 23 are killed.

95% of the victims either live in slums or poor neighborhoods.

"This is the historical, chronic reality. This sort of statistic wouldn't hold in neighborhoods such as Leblon, Ipanema, Copacabana. Those who detain the power to decide things would react. They wouldn't allow their kids be exposed to barbarism, which is what happens in the invisible world [of the slums]", said Antônio Carlos Costa, the president of the Rio de Paz NGO.

Amnesty International, another NGO, created a digital platform to register crossfires in the more violent regions of the capital as well as neighboring areas. The platform is called Fogo Cruzado (Cross Fire). During the first quarter of 2017, 1,770 crossfires were registered.

Stray bullets are no novelty to Rio de Janeiro, but the condition the city's security is in, which is deteriorating, makes citizens even more vulnerable.

A severe recession has struck Rio, which has not been managing to pay civil servants on time. It is also facing a rise in violence, which led to a request to the National Guard - which sent out troops that will serve in Rio from Monday (the 15th) onward.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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