Tim Lopes

The details of Lopes's death received substantial attention in Brazil's media because of the barbarity of the crime and due to it highlighting the existence of poder paralelo (parallel power) within Rio—meaning criminals controlling areas of the city with impunity.

The nine traffickers who were sought by police, and eventually stood trial and put behind bars were: Elias Pereira da Silva (Elias Maluco); André da Cruz Barbosa (André Capeta); Cláudio Orlando do Nascimento (Ratinho); Maurício de Lima Matias (Boizinho); Claudino dos Santos Coelho (Xuxa); Elizeu Felício de Souza (Zeu); Ângelo da Silva (Primo); Reinaldo Amaral de Jesus (Cadê); and Fernando Sátyro da Silva (Frei). (They are ordered in terms of the degree of their culpability in Lopes's torture and murder—with Elias Maluco being the gang leader, and André Capeta being his right-hand man.)

Claudino dos Santos Coelho (known by the nicknames Xuxa and Russão) escaped from the Bangu penitentiary in Rio's Zona Oeste (West Zone) in February 2013, along with 30 other prisoners by tunneling to a sewer. By September 2013 he was one of those leading a gang of sixty heavily armed bandits ensconced in the jungled hills above Rio (between Covanca and Lins de Vasconcelos) as a home base from which they preyed on neighborhoods. When the police special forces unit of BOPE mounted an operation against them in September 2013 he and another trafficker were killed in the ensuing gun battle along with a lieutenant of BOPE.

In June 2012, ten years after Tim Lopes's death, the Complexo do Alemão began to be under the umbrella of eight new Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) at the predetermined conclusion of the military's presence. The UPPs cover the areas of the Complexo do Alemão (which comprises 13 favelas) and Penha. Just the Complexo itself is policed by 1,200 UPP officers (it was announced in July 2012 that the number would be increased to 1,800). One of the UPPs within the Complexo covers the area of the Pedra do Sapo, which is the hill and upper field where an anonymous tip led detectives to discover a clandestine cemetery which contained some fragments of Lopes's bones and some of his personal effects.

Tim Lopes was posthumously awarded Brazil's top human rights prize, the Prêmio Direitos Humanos, on December 17, 2012, among other recipients. The award was presented by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to Lopes's sister Tânia Lopes at Itamaraty in Brasília. President Dilma expressed that the award honors "individuals fighters" who "risk their lives in defense of human rights."

Elias Maluco and other traffickers then transported Lopes to a nearby hill within the Complexo called Pedra do Sapo (Rock of the Toad). The sides of the hill are densely packed with the type of brick shacks typical of favelas, but the geography at the top of the hill features a desolate, grassy plateau with scattered small trees and a rudimentary football field. For many years these hilltops were used by leaders of drug trafficking gangs as sanctuary from law enforcement; they now feature the stations of a gondola transport system connecting the Complexo, operational since July 2011.

Ratinho took an active part in torturing Lopes and was strongly in favor of killing Lopes when they conducted a mock trial. Ratinho had been one of the traffickers featured in the "Big Drug Fair" report from the previous year, which had resulted in a period of police crackdowns. (In 2011 he was charged with assault while in prison after throwing boiling water on his girlfriend during a conjugal visit).

In January 2011, during the inauguration ceremony marking his reelection, Rio de Janeiro State Governor Sérgio Cabral mentioned Tim Lopes in his inaugural speech. Cabral stated that Tim Lopes's memory had been honored by Rio's government when the press room and a public high school were named after Lopes.

In 2011 it was announced that Brazilian film director José Padilha, who is best known for his Elite Squad films (and who directed the remake of the 1987 urban sci-fi action film, RoboCop) is directing a documentary about the 2010 invasion of Vila Cruzeiro and the Complexo do Alemão by Rio's police and the Brazilian military. It's been reported that the documentary begins with an opening scene recounting the torture of Tim Lopes.

The traffickers drove Lopes along a winding back dirt road leading away from the Vila Cruzeiro favela (which is situated in Penha) and into the Complexo do Alemão network of favelas, a distance of about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) on winding roads through hilly terrain (this also being the same route used by groups of fleeing criminals brandishing assault rifles when military police units and the Brazilian military invaded Vila Cruzeiro during the 2010 Rio de Janeiro security crisis). Upon arriving at the Favela da Grota (which was the headquarters of the criminal faction who controlled the Complexo), Tim Lopes was met by Elias Maluco. Once they pulled Lopes out of the car trunk he was recognized by one of the traffickers, Cláudio Orlando do Nascimento, known by the nickname Ratinho (Little Rat). (Lopes had filmed Ratinho on the street in the Grota the previous year while Ratinho was cleaning an automatic rifle; the footage was aired as part of the "Feirão das Drogas" report that got so much attention). Also present were other traffickers named Xuxa and Zeu.

Ângelo Ferreira da Silva (Primo), who was sentenced to nine years. After he had completed a sixth of his total sentence he was let out of prison on work release, at which point he fled. He was recaptured by police in the Rio suburb of Santa Cruz in May 2010.

On November 25, 2010, Rio's special forces battalion (BOPE), supported by other police units, entered Vila Cruzeiro in Penha via Brazilian Marine armored transport to various points within the slum and ultimately took control of the hill and the surrounding area of Penha. This action was in response to attacks throughout Rio by the criminal faction headquartered there. Military and civil police units (which included CORE, Batalhão de Choque, Federal Police, among others) then took over the territory of the network of favelas comprising the Complexo do Alemão with support from the Brazilian Armed Forces. Thousands of soldiers of the Brazilian military were stationed throughout these communities during the subsequent two years.

During the 2010 Rio de Janeiro security crisis, after BOPE reached strategic points at the top of Vila Cruzeiro hill via tanks driven by Brazilian Marines, Rio's media showed live aerial footage of a multitude of criminals frantically fleeing on foot over the dirt back roads that exited into the Complexo do Alemão. This was the same route that the kidnapped Tim Lopes traveled in a car trunk when he was being transported from Vila Cruzeiro to the Complexo do Alemão.

In December 2010, a mass was held to commemorate Lopes in a church in the Complexo called the Igreja Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe. Lopes's 87-year-old mother, Maria do Carmo do Nascimento, was in attendance. The service was organized by Rio's municipal union for journalists, the Sindicato dos Jornalistas do Município do Rio de Janeiro.

Tim Lopes's son, Bruno Quintella (who was 19 when his father was killed), completed a university degree in journalism in 2010. In 2011 he began filming a biographical documentary film about the life of his father to show a broader perspective, not just the details of his death. In May 2012, 29-year-old Quintella visited Vila Cruzeiro, and also Pedro do Sapo in the Complexo do Alemão, the location of the clandestine cemetery that had held his father's remains. His visit coincided with the establishment of a permanent community police presence, as new UPPs were inaugurated in the area. The title of the film is "Histórias de Arcanjo: um documentário sobre Tim Lopes," (Stories of Archangel: a documentary about Tim Lopes); Arcanjo being Tim Lopes's first name.

Elizeu Felício de Souza (Zeu) was responsible for setting fire to Lopes's body. In 2007 he was paroled, at which point he fled to the Complexo do Alemão, which was an area outside of police interference at that time. Zeu was later secretly filmed working as a drug trafficker in the Complexo do Alemão. It was only in 2010 when military and police units invaded the network of favelas in the Complexo that they discovered him hiding in a house in a part of the Complexo known as Coqueiro. He was taken into custody. The arrest was widely publicized and applauded in Rio's media.

Tim Lopes was honored in a São Paulo carnaval (carnival) procession in 2003 by the samba school, Acadêmicos do Tucuruvi, with the theme "Do not shut my voice," a tribute to a free press, with lyrics such as, "the truth Tim-Tim by Tim-Tim," in reference to his nickname.

Years later as a journalist, Lopes produced a piece about Mangueira samba and one of its founders, the Carioca sambista Carlos Cachaça. Cachaça saw the story and commented to a sambista friend, Monarco, of the Velha Guarda da Portela, that Lopes's reporting was "the best material that he had ever seen" on Mangueira. In 2002, Lopes was co-writing a book, about Mangueira samba school and his experience growing up there, with Alexander Medeiros.

In 2002 Lopes started working on a story about caminhoneiros (long-distance truck drivers that traverse Brazil) for Globo TV.

On the afternoon of June 2, 2002, 51-year-old Tim Lopes left his apartment in a middle class section of Rio's Copacabana neighborhood.

On the afternoon of June 2, 2002, Lopes decided to film at a boca de fumo (a drug-selling location) along Rua Oito (Eighth Street) in the Vila Cruzeiro favela. Lopes's aim was to obtain footage of drugs and weapons, as he had in 2001 in the favela da Grota within the Complexo do Alemão. It was later learned that before this night, Lopes had recently filmed in Vila Cruzeiro three different times.

The chief detective in charge of the Tim Lopes case was Inspector Daniel Gomes of the 22ª DP of the bairro da Penha (the Penha neighborhood precinct). On Monday June 3, 2002 at 11:00 am, Gomes was sitting in his office at the police station when he was notified that an attorney from Rede Globo was there to see him. Accompanying him was the driver who had waited for Lopes outside the favela the night before.

Following an anonymous tip, on June 11, 2002, detectives discovered a secret grave site in a field near a rudimentary football field at the top of Pedra do Sapo hill. There they uncovered a few burned bone fragments of several individuals. Through DNA testing they were able to positively identify a small part of a rib bone belonging to Tim Lopes. Also found buried at the site were Lopes's wristwatch, his crucifix, and the micro-camera that he had been using that night. There was also what remained of a burned ninja sword.

Five years after Lopes's death, a teenager was arrested in southern Brazil who had been at the scene of Lopes's murder. Now going by the name Cinqüenta (Fifty), he was a 12-year-old boy in 2002 when he was told to buy diesel fuel and bring it to the top of the hill in order to set fire to Lopes. Upon his arrest in 2007, he gave a detailed account to police about that night and spoke to a group of journalists, adding to what had been previously said during the investigation.

After an intensive and highly publicized 3½-month man-hunt, Elias Maluco was captured by police in the Favela da Grota on September 19, 2002. On May 25, 2005 he was given a prison sentence of 28½ years.

One of the reporters working on Lopes's team to collect undercover footage for the same investigative report was Globo journalist Cristina Guimarães. She filmed in the Rio favelas of Mangueira and Rocinha during the same time period. The report was televised in Brazil on the program Jornal Nacional on August 3, 2001. The report got a lot of attention, which in turn caused Rio's political administration to take action. Police crackdowns followed, and dealers in the favela da Grota, and the other favelas featured were prevented from openly selling drugs on the street for a while, and some were arrested. Subsequently, the drug lords of the criminal factions controlling these areas were not happy with the decrease in revenues. (One of the dealers arrested, "Ratinho", would later factor in Lopes's death).

The traffickers tied Lopes to a tree. Ratinho was convinced that this was the same "Tim Lopes" that did the television report in 2001, resulting in his arrest and interference with the gang's drug profits. For this he insisted that Lopes had to die. Lopes pleaded for his life, but he was told that he would die. One of the traffickers who was present, Frei, later told detectives that there were more than twenty people present at the scene, nine of whom participated in Lopes's murder.

The Globo program Jornal Nacional subsequently televised a response, including an editorial by newscaster William Bonner criticizing Gomes's report. Jornal Nacional stated that Lopes's recorded footage was destroyed that night in the micro-ondas and that the community at Vila Cruzeiro had asked for Lopes help concerning minors being prostituted at the baile funk in their community. Jornal Nacional also stated that Tim Lopes was the behind-the-scene producer for 2001's "Feirão de Drogas", so his likeness would not necessarily have been well-known. Rio Governor Benedita da Silva subsequently took Gomes off of the case.

Lopes became a producer at Rede Globo in 1996. In 2001 Lopes and his team at Rede Globo received the Prêmio Esso (Brazil's version of the Pulitzer) for an investigative series entitled "Feirão das Drogas" ("Big Drug Fair"), in which he used a hidden camera to show dealers on the street openly hawking cocaine to passing pedestrians, yelling out the drug and its price. His footage also captured armed traffickers parading past on motorcycles with AK-47s. This footage was shot in a dense network of favelas in the Zona Norte called the Complexo do Alemão (German Complex); more specifically within the Complexo this particular area is known as the Grota.

He was heading to the Vila Cruzeiro favela after first stopping by his office at Rede Globo, where he had been a broadcast producer since 1996. César Sebra, the man who was Lopes's boss for six years at Rede Globo, recalled: "Most of the journalists working at Globo's offices are middle-class. Only a few people live like Tim used to live in the favelas."

His first foray into broadcast journalism was for the popular newsmagazine program Fantástico on the Globo network. During one assignment in 1995, Lopes posed as a street vendor while concealing a camera within a cooler. His aim was to shine a journalistic light on the risks posed to ordinary citizens of Rio of being mugged or assaulted by thieves, as this was a particularly acute reality at that time. During the course of the investigation, Lopes witnessed a dramatic scene which was all caught on camera: A group of teenagers mug a pedestrian couple in Rio's Centro business district, with one of the thieves wielding a large knife. When a taxi driver scares the mugger off by firing a revolver, the boy runs into heavy traffic on Avenida Presidente Vargas and is violently killed when he is hit by a city bus. Several Globo cameras were filming the entire episode from different angles, which was shown during the report (a black bar covered a portion of the frame at the moment the boy was killed). The scene weighed on Lopes's mind for a long time.

Tim Lopes's journalism colleagues described him as an old-school type reporter who gleaned his stories from researching on the street as opposed to sitting in an air-conditioned office browsing the Internet for ideas. A consistent theme of Tim Lopes's reporting was to show how low-income citizens living within Rio's favelas could be subjected to terror and powerlessness under the 'law of the traffickers.' Lopes felt that the government had ceded control of poor neighborhoods to violent drug traffickers. An example of this was the series he wrote for the Rio newspaper O Dia in 1994 entitled, "Funk: Som, Alegria, e Terror," (Funk: Sound, Joy, and Terror). The story described certain baile funk run by traffickers (baile funk are dance concerts held in favelas featuring live performers singing a style of rap called Rio Funk).

Rio journalist Jorge Antonio Barros, who has been writing about Rio's favelas and the crime beat since the 1980s and was a colleague of Lopes at Globo, wrote that Lopes's death served to snap him out of the dream state, to which people sometimes fall prey, of romanticizing "the malandro;" and that his death reminded people who don't have to live in favelas under the "law of the trafficker" of the terror that exists as a daily reality.

Tim Lopes attended journalism school at the Faculdade Hélio Alonso (FACHA) in Rio de Janeiro and during his career wrote for the Rio newspapers O Globo, O Dia, and Jornal do Brasil. As part of an investigative piece in 1978, Lopes worked at a construction site on Rio's underground Metro to highlight difficult working conditions in the stifling heat. Lopes won a Brazilian journalism award called the Prêmio Abril de Jornalismo in both 1985 and 1986 for feature stories involving football in the sports magazine Placar.

Tim Lopes (born Arcanjo Antonino Lopes do Nascimento; November 18, 1950 – June 2, 2002) was a Brazilian investigative journalist and producer for the Brazilian television network Rede Globo. In 2002, the media reported him missing while working undercover on a story in one of Rio's favelas. It was later learned that Lopes had been accosted by drug traffickers who controlled the area, was kidnapped, driven to the top of a neighboring favela in the trunk of a car, tied to a tree and subjected to a mock trial, tortured by having his hands, arms, and legs severed with a sword while still alive, and then had his body placed within tires, covered in gasoline and set on fire—a practice that traffickers have dubbed micro-ondas (allusion to the microwave oven).