the-multiversal-asterisk

[thedevilsrain]

today completes 32 years of the carandiru prison massacre!

on october 2, 1992, a riot began in carandiru jail. it was the biggest prison in brasil and one of, if not the biggest in latin america. it was meant to house around 3500 men.

by that day, there were 9800.

the riot began in the morning. by the early afternoon, the police shock force had entered the seven pavilions which made up the detention center. by the end of the afternoon, the sounds of sirens, gunshots and unintelligible yells had been sure ringing out in the ears of the neighborhood — despite being a massive jail, an equally large neighborhood had been informally built around the seven pavilions.

if you tried hard enough that day, you might've seen a glimpse of the massacre that followed from the windows of the train that followed along the tracks right in front of the jail.

the news and police helicopters flew in circles in the sky, the news and police vans honked and screeched around the street. the murderous police dogs barked while the families of the inmates shrieked and sobbed — their wails immortalized in the reporter's cameras. 111 inmates had been murdered by the police.

the images shown in brazilian televisions that day are perhaps some of the most shocking and gruesome that we had ever seen. there were two that stuck in public conscience the most. the two that, if you ask any brazilian about the massacre, will be the first to pop into their heads.

the first, men, hundreds of them, naked, lined up, some with blood on their skin, in the same fetal position on the hot floor. survivors. the same black hair, the same dark skin, the same vultures in armor that patrolled around them. this would be the poster for the movie carandiru (2003) dir. hector babenco.

the second, blood, crimson, as we had never seen before. dripping down the green floors and walls, the rusted jail cells, the dirty cotton beds. an entire hallway covered in blood, and the vague silhouette of the men that had been left to clean it. of course, there were no pictures released to the press of the men whose bodies the blood belonged to. mostly. brazilian media has always hated prison inmates — there were no doubt those who laughed as the massacre happened. this would be one of the more striking images of racionais MC's diário de um detento (an inmate's journal) a song detailed the day before, during, and after the massacre. "adolf hitler smiles in hell" has always been my favorite line from it.

in 2002, the governor of são paulo ordered the jail to be bombed and demolished.

in 2012, a library and a public park had been opened in its place. the park is called "parque da juventude" (youth park).

in 2022, president bolsonaro pardoned the men who had been court martialed for the massacre. on the same years of its 30th anniversary, the president has pardoned men who had murdered 111 inmates in cold blood, murderers with families and wives and husbands and daughters and sons and granddaughters and grandsons and mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers.

in 2024, a few weeks ago — close to the massacre's 32th birthday — the são paulo justice court labelled this pardon "constitutional".

it really makes you wonder if some things ever change.