More than 300 police officers mobilized, drones and helicopters … In Brazil, a major manhunt is underway this Wednesday near Brasilia, to find the alleged killer of four people. Despite the important device, the latter remains untraceable and the inhabitants are terrified. “At the slightest noise, it’s panic,” says Aurizênia Batista da Silva, who lives in Cocalzinho de Goiás, a small town nestled in the heart of Cerrado, the Brazilian savannah, 75 km from the federal capital.
The very name of Lazaro Barbosa, a 32-year-old inmate who has become the most wanted man in Brazil, is enough to make his blood run cold: “they say he’s the devil himself”. But Lazaro Barboza is first and foremost a face, the photos of which are broadcast in the media all over Brazil: crazy locks that cover the forehead, a thin mustache, a beard collar. And especially the half-breed has a piercing and threatening gaze.
Rumors and panic
Some call him the ‘Brasilia serial killer’, others say he is ‘worse than the Covid pandemic’, which has claimed more than half a million lives in Brazil. This native of the state of Bahia (northeast) was imprisoned in 2011 for rape. He escaped in 2016, was recaptured, before escaping again in 2018.
But Lazaro Barbosa became the number one public danger on June 9, when four members of the same family were stabbed to death in the rural area of Cocalzinho de Goiás. Since then, rumors have continued to fuel the panic of residents: some say they have heard gunshots, others mention thefts and hostage-taking.
Places of worship targeted by strong police incursions
The police have been scouring the countryside for two weeks and their interventions are sometimes too muscular for the taste of some residents. This is the case of Tata Ngunzetala, responsible for a place of worship in Candomblé, who deplores that the alleged assassin was associated with this Afro-Brazilian religion considered demonic by his detractors.
“More than 40 police officers jumped the wall, searched my phone and my computer without a warrant and threatened me with assault rifles, accusing me of protecting Lazaro,” she explains. A dozen other places of worship in Candomblé have been the target of similar police incursions.