Jairo Sousa was shot dead in 2018 in Bragança city, in Pará. The radio broadcaster received threats for presenting complaints against politicians and local business man.
The delay disrupts and extends the mourning of Jairo Sousa. It’s been more than three years and four months since his brother, the radio broadcaster Jairo Sousa was shot dead on June 21st of 2018, in Bragança city, in the State of Pará, in Brazil. It’s a delay, which for Jadi means impunity.
Jairo was 43 years old when he was a victim of murder. Was shot, when he arrived to his job at Radio Pérola FM, located at the city’s Centre, he was in charge of the program “Show da Pérola”. On his broadcasts, Jairo complained about local administration and reported illegal contracts, vote buying and the lack of food for children in schools. His situation as a journalist was the main cause of the crime.
The Public Ministry of Pará (MP) exposed 11 persons involved in the murder; for 9 of them, Justice accepted the request of preventive prison. Although, at least one of them is in prison and another one is a fugitive. The rest were put on parole. According to the investigations, Jairo’s death was ordered by the Bragança’s Counselor, Cesar Monteiro, accused of hiring a group of hit man to kill the radio broadcaster, a job for which he had paid R$ 30 thousand reales, around five thousand dollars in money change. The band’s boss, according to the MP, is José Roberto Costa de Sousa, known as “Calar”. He sent Dione de Sousa to shoot and kill the journalist.
The criminal proceedings against the accused of murder, is a daily work, but Jadi, the victim’s brother, won’t desist and accept to rest. Not only because of his blood relation but also for his professional duty: he is also a journalist and presents a local television program.
“I make a TV program, make complaints, but with a lot more caution now. Journalism on inland cities it is a dangerous career, extremely dangerous. Everyone who has money is on charge, are a constant danger. If I could disappear from here, I would have, but I don’t have another sustain to survive, otherwise I’ve left this place”, says Jadi, 43 years old, the same age as his brother was when murdered.
The report was made by the Public Ministry on January 26th of 2019. Since then, six pre-trial prosecution hearings, on which the judge listens to the accusation witnesses and defense, were already made. And there are more persons waiting to be heard by the judge.
“That trial causes indignation in the family, on me, because it doesn’t have an ending date. There’s lots of bureaucracy, the police’s investigation, goes from the Public Ministry, the Public Ministry sends it to Justice and then there are hearings to later on mark the trial. Justice hasn’t finished these hearings. We’re waiting for them to be finished. It’s been more than three years and we don’t have a trial date”, Jairo Junior complaints, 21 years old, the murdered broadcaster’s son.
The coronavirus pandemic also made the process longer. On March June 11th of 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the world was confronting a sanitary crisis, and, in Brazil, this news ended up on the termination of the proceedings on Justice, or the adoption of videoconferencing as a mean for trials.
“I sincerely have doubts if we will find justice. I trusted on some delegates, but I think money prevails in a small city when one has no support from outside of the authorities to put on pressure. Here on our region it is difficult to trust justice”, says Jadi. The Public Ministry and the Court of Justice from Pará were searched for the report, but did not manifest.
The crime
Jairo’s program cheered the region’s habitants’ breakfast, which got up very early to work. It was through the broadcaster’s voice where the community got knowledge of the complaints of construction projects made by companies which belong to the mayor’s and secretaries’ relatives; lack of lunches for scholars; decrees with direct bids; and work offers made by the secretary to counselors in exchange of votes and political support. The program started at 5of the morning and Jairo arrived to the radio before the schedule. His executioners knew it.
The “acid” comments uttered by the communicator fetched threats. For that reason, 12 years back he protected himself from an attempt, with a bulletproof vest, according to his ex-wife’s testimony, Cristina Sousa. For some reason, even though, the early morning of June 21st of 2018, Jairo went out of home wearing the vest which had become part of his usual clothing.
Images from the street’s surveillance cameras revealed the dynamic of the crime. The broadcaster was shot when he went up the building’s stairs where the radio is located. One of the videos shows the gunman get out of a car, by the passenger’s side. According to the investigations, that man was Dione, who walks slowly to the building’s direction and, a bit later, comes back running to the car, where two other accomplices awaited. The murderer entered the vehicle on the other side and sat on the back seat. The car left the building on a rush.
Investigations also identified the participation of men in a second car. This other vehicle stayed next to the radio’s building, to give support the murder to identify the victim. The firing author reached Jairo twice on the lateral side of the abdomen. Injured, the broadcaster ran, but fell just before to get to the top of the stairs. He was assisted and taken to the San Antonio Maria Zaccaria’s Hospital, where he desisted. The murder used a caliber 38 revolver.
The motive
After Jairo’s murder, a list of threatened people appeared in Bragança. Besides the broadcaster, the participants of a group who investigated the public administration, and who made complaints, also were marked to be killed. The lawyer and counselor Rivaldo Educadora (PMDB), the entrepreneur Gleidson Veras and the reporter Ronny Madison, from Radio Educadora, integrated the list of threats.
“There was no reason to stay; my family was desperate and feared to die. So I left Bragança in 2020. I lived a faraway town, in a place, close to the highway to Viseu. There were a few houses there, it was favorable to suffer any kind of attack, and the highway was dark. I wore a bulletproof vest for a long time; I used to ask for security to the police, always walked near them friendly policemen. But there was a time where I just couldn’t do it anymore”, said the journalist Madison, who lives in the interior of São Paulo, close to 3km from Bragança.
Madison still remembers how the journalistic group began. In the beginning, each one of the members worked solo, later on they decided to team up; investigate as a team and gathering up cautiously to plan on other investigations. Over time, they ended up disturbing powerful influences from the region. Madison claims that he was offered money offers to leave his journalistic duty. He began receiving threats after the offer rejections, which happened before Jairo’s death.
Amongst the investigated complaints by the journalistic team, taken to the public on the program presented by Jairo, one of them outstands and it is linked as the main motive of the murder. The report is about the suspicion related to the contracts of the Torre Forte Terraplenagem with the Bragança’s City Hall for the paving projects, in schools and health units. The Torre Forte Terraplenagem belonged to counselor’s Cesar Monteiro’s two nephews, Raimundo Nonato’s ally, Mayor of Bragança. Nonato was in charge of the City Hall, before the crime and now still remains in charge. Wanted to declare as part of the report, he decided to not give any information.
According to the process, Monteiro had negotiated the death of Jairo with Calar, pointing out as the leader of the criminal group which proceeds in the region of Bragança. The gang is responsible for many murders committed in exchange of money.
Listed as one of the persons sentenced to death, Miranda doesn’t believe that Monteiro had lead the intent of silencing the investigation group responsible of complaints about the contracts of the Bragança’s City Hall. For him, there are people more powerful than the counselor behind Jairo Sousa’s murder.
“For me, there are more people involved which will come out unpunished. The real leaders are already unspotted, because I find it hard to believe that Cesar was the brain, the planner, and financial aid of that crime. I believe that he was an instrument, an intermediate between the superiors and the murderers”, says Miranda, who remains living in Bragança. He was the candidate to be Mayor in the past elections, but was left in third place.
A strong testimony
On October 19th of 2020 – some days after the dissemination of the surveillance videos-, an informant searched for the police to tell on what he knew. The witness identified the murderer as Diones de Sousa Almeida, which was a member of a hitmans gang lead by Calar. In his testimony, the informant told that Calar tried to ambush in an entire evening, in a path which gave access to the residency where the broadcaster lived with his wife. But in that occasion, Jairo de Sousa did not return home. Reason enough for which Clar then decided to commit the crime at the radio, where the victim worked, “because he was pretty sure that he will appear there, and that’s what happened, and which is why the victim was ambushed at the stairs of the building where he worked”.
According to the informant, Calar was hired by local politicians, amongst them was the counselor Cesar Monteiro. The death of Jairo de Sousa was worth R$ 30 thousand reales. The investigations went through after the complaint. On January 11th of 2019, the promoter Luiz da Silva Souza, from Bragança, formalized the complaint against 11 persons involved in the murder. Amongst them was the counselor, charged for the crime. The others reported were accused of integrating a hitmans guild.
As the justice’s process, Monteiro appears to have achieved what he wanted. A justice’s decision on February 7th of 2020 determined the dismemberment of the process. With the sentence, the counselor was taken apart from those accused of committing murders in exchange of money and goes to a solo trial.
The process against the hitmans guild proceeds slowly. The last pre-trial hearing and trial were on May 19th of 2021. Calar and Diones, will be interrogated, were prisoned during the hearings, although their lawyers, in the occasion, presented requirements to revoke the preventive prison of the accused.
On May 27th the jury Vasconcelos Dias conceited the liberty to four of the accused: Calar, Dione de Sousa Almeida, Jadson Roberto Reis de Sousa y Madson Aviz de Melo. Dione was barely set free. The rest of the accused remain detained because there are actual warrants of prison for other committed crimes. The case remains unpunished.
