March 1996


Locked behind barbed wire and treated like a common criminal lives Wagner dos Santos in Brazil - the key witness in the Candelaria massacre. He was shot 3 times in the head and dumped in a field because he happened to be present when the military police gunned down 8 street children. The reason for the massacre? Because a boy hit one policeman with a stone when he was being arrested for stealing glue. Wagner lives under government protection. Thirty days after the Candelaria massacre, the death squad of the 9th Rio battalion opened fire in Vigario Geral, one of the poorest slums north of Rio. Amongst the stagnant water, the cardboard shacks and the rubbish, one survivor recounts the brutal murder of her entire family. Debilitated by facial paralysis, sight and hearing problems, Wagner is still determined that the police should be punished for what they have done.