The story of 8-year-old Ágatha Félix has moved Rio de Janeiro and the country as a whole. Last week, while sitting in the back of a van alongside her mother in a cluster of favelas known as Complexo do Alemão, in the north of Rio de Janeiro, Ágatha was shot in the back by an assault rifle. Eye-witness reports suggest the culprits were military police officers.
Ágatha was rushed to a nearby hospital but died of her injuries.
The response was explosive and immediate. Protests were organized all over the city, with demonstrators throwing red paint all over the steps of the Rio state legislative assembly, and NGO Rio da Paz placed 57 crosses outside of Aterro do Flamengo, each carrying the name of a child killed by stray bullets in Rio de Janeiro favelas since 2007.
The response of the head of Rio’s military police, however, was not nearly as immediate. In fact, with the death of Ágatha dominating headlines in the press nationwide, far-right state governor Wilson Witzel remained in silence for a full three days. When he eventually opened his mouth, he managed to cause even more outrage.
“Using a coffin as a soapbox is shameful, especially when it belongs to a child,” he declared. Immediately, Mr. Witzel’s opponents picked up on the glaring contradiction in the governor’s words. Since the beginning of his 2018 election campaign until today, Wilson Witzel’s entire platform has been built upon coffins.
Last year, he was famously pictured at an electoral rally alongside a federal representative destroying a street sign in memorial of Marielle Franco, the socialist Rio councilor assassinated in March 2018.
After a hostage situation in Rio de Janeiro last month, which culminated in a mentally disturbed bus hijacker being shot dead by...
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