Maicon de Souza Silva was only 2 years old when a police bullet went through his head in front of his own home, in the favela of Acari, Rio de Janeiro, on April 2, 1996. That same day, Renato da Silva Paixão, a 6-year-old boy, lost a leg in the same operation.
The police closed the case as “resisting arrest resulting in death”: the formula they used to blame the victim for their own death. They even claimed that Maicon, a baby, had fired at them. The investigation was shelved in 2019 for lack of evidence, and that was that, as if nothing had happened.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had to intervene for the case to be reopened. On June 30, almost 29 years later, the Brazilian state signed an official reparation. “No child should grow up under the fear of violence. No family should have to wait decades to obtain justice”, said Minister Janine Mello. The question that remains is how many more Maicons exist without anyone having apologized yet.