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FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5760
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 6817
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RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 7423
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 2769
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RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 2158
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000988 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DS/IP/WHA, WHA/BSC, INR 
NSC FOR FEARS 
DEPT ALSO FOR WHA/PDA, DRL/PHD, DS/IP/WHA 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KCRM PHUM PINR SOCI BR
SUBJECT:  COMMANDER OF CARANDIRU MASSACRE FOUND MURDERED 
 
REF: (A) SAO PAULO 215; (B) BRASILIA 496; (C) 05 SAO PAULO    975; 
 
(D) SAO PAULO 742 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  The police commander who was in charge of 
operations during the infamous 1992 police massacre of inmates at 
Sao Paulo's Carandiru Prison was found dead in his apartment on 
Sunday night, September 10.  Early reports indicate that Ubiratan 
Guimaraes, who retired from the police force and had became a state 
legislator, was shot once through the chest by someone who seemed to 
have fairly easy access to his home in an upscale neighborhood of 
Sao Paulo.  While police officials say they cannot rule out any 
possible motive for the crime, the governor dismissed the notion 
that the murder was linked to organized crime, an implied reference 
to the prison gang PCC, which is thought to have carried out the 
assassination last October of the man who was warden at Carandiru at 
the time of the massacre.  The murder could have been a crime of 
passion or even a random act of violence, but regardless, it has 
forced to the surface of Brazilian consciousness yet again the 
massacre for which no one has ever truly been held accountable.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
CONTROVERSIAL COP AVOIDED PRISON, DIES MYSTERIOUSLY 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2.  (U) Sao Paulo state legislator Ubiratan Guimaraes was found dead 
with a single gunshot wound to the chest late Sunday night, 
September 10, in his apartment in the upscale neighborhood of 
Jardins Paulista (several blocks from the former site of the 
Consulate).  Guimaraes was well known in Brazil as the Military 
Police colonel who was in charge of the operation to quell a prison 
riot in Sao Paulo's Carandiru Prison in October 1992 (reftels).  To 
end the standoff in the prison, 362 Military Police "shock troops" 
entered the prison and fired at inmates practically 
indiscriminately, even at those cowering in cells.  111 prisoners 
were killed.  Subsequent police attempts to hide or alter evidence, 
downplay the incident and to mislead the public regarding the actual 
number of inmates killed, led to worldwide condemnation of the 
operation as a human rights violation.  The massacre at Carandiru 
also became a rallying cry for prisoners decrying conditions in Sao 
Paulo state prisons, and was the catalyst for the formation of the 
state's notorious prison-based organized crime gang, the First 
Capital Command (PCC) (ref C). 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The state closed and eventually imploded Carandiru Prison, 
but no one has ever been held truly accountable for the massacre. 
In 2001, Guimaraes was found responsible for 102 deaths and was 
sentenced to 632 years in prison.  However, he was released from 
custody pending an appeal, and in February 2006 a state high court 
reversed the conviction and absolved him of any wrongdoing (ref A), 
which drew the wrath of the international human rights community 
once again.  In a twist on conventional logic, Guimaraes' lawyer 
told Embassy Poloff that it would have been a human rights violation 
had the courts condemned Guimaraes, because he had simply followed 
orders from state and municipal leaders in launching the assault on 
the prison, and because he had been injured by an exploding gas 
canister in the opening minutes of the operation and was essentially 
incapacitated -- and thus not in direct command -- during the 
ensuing melee (ref B).  Guimaraes' lawyer insisted that her client 
had been a scapegoat of the government and of the press for 14 
years. 
 
¶4.  (U) After retiring from the Military Police, Guimaraes 
successfully ran for state legislature, ironically using the 
electoral number 111, which coincided with the number of prisoners 
killed at Carandiru Prison during the massacre for which he claimed 
no responsibility (NOTE: Brazilian candidates are identified on the 
ballot by a series of numbers representing their party affiliation 
and their personal identification.  Campaign pamphlets, posters and 
television ads usually include the candidate's face, name and 
electoral numbers.  END NOTE.)  Guimaraes insisted that he chose the 
numbers not to associate himself with Carandiru, but because 111 was 
the number of the horse he rode while part of a police cavalry unit 
 
SAO PAULO 00000988  002 OF 003 
 
 
earlier in his 34-year police career. 
 
¶5.  (U) At the time of his death, Guimaraes was in the midst of a 
re-election campaign and had attended a political event on Saturday 
afternoon, September 9.  At least one local commentator has opined 
that he would have retained his seat easily.  Police believe he was 
killed late Saturday or early Sunday based on "informal" testimony 
from Guimaraes' girlfriend, a Sao Paulo attorney and the last person 
to see him alive, as well as from initial interviews with neighbors 
and building employees, and evidence at the crime scene.  Police say 
there were no signs of struggle in the apartment, but the back door 
was left ajar.  Guimaraes appears to have been in his living room 
when he was shot once in the chest from approximately a meter away. 
He was found wearing only a bath towel wrapped around his waist.  By 
Monday evening, September 11, police said they had not yet 
determined the caliber of bullet that killed Guimaraes, but admitted 
that a .38 revolver belonging to him was missing from the apartment, 
even as they found several other firearms that he owned.  As is 
customary in Brazil, Guimaraes was buried by his family on Monday, 
September 11, within 24 hours of the discovery of his death.  Police 
say their investigation is ongoing, and they will conduct further 
witness interviews. 
 
------------------------ 
RETRIBUTION, OR PASSION? 
------------------------ 
 
¶6.  (U) Investigating police commanders said on Monday that they 
could not rule out any possible motive or scenario behind the 
murder, including an act of revenge for Guimaraes' role in the 
Carandiru massacre, or an act of passion.  Guimaraes' girlfriend 
apparently admitted to the police that the couple had argued just 
before she left his apartment Saturday evening.  The fight 
reportedly started after he received a telephone call from another 
woman. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Sao Paulo Governor Claudio Lembo publicly dismissed the 
theory that the murder was connected to organized crime.  A link to 
the PCC is easy to surmise because the gang is thought to have 
assassinated Jose Ismael Pedrosa -- the warden at Carandiru at the 
time of the massacre -- in October 2005.  The PCC is known to carry 
out murders as acts of retribution.  For example, the PCC 
orchestrated the systematic killings of six prison guards on their 
own doorsteps over the course of a week this past June (ref D), in 
part as retribution for police and prison crack-downs.  It is also a 
PCC modus operandi to commit acts of violence, including 
assassinations, on or near dates of importance to the organization. 
The massacre at Carandiru occurred on October 2, 1992, which likely 
explains the timing of Pedrosa's murder last year. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
ALWAYS UNDER THREAT, ALWAYS THREATENING 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (U) Guimaraes was said to have lived with near-constant death 
threats throughout the 14 years since Carandiru.  Yet he never hired 
security for his personal protection.  Instead, he was known to have 
carried a .38 revolver at most times, including during legislative 
sessions.  He was a strong opponent of various efforts to restrict 
gun ownership in Brazil, and was associated with the "Bench of 
Bullets," a group of state legislators committed to strong 
anti-crime measures. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) COMMENT:  To the bitter end, Guimaraes claimed he had a 
clear conscience in regard to the events at Carandiru in 1992.  And 
even though he chafed against the moniker "the Colonel of Carandiru" 
and its implication for his legacy, in some ways his political 
persona seemed tied to that identity, and he maintained that a 
majority of Brazilians considered him a hero for his police service. 
 During the recent PCC attacks (ref D), he noted ironically and 
somewhat bitterly that the human rights organizations that vilified 
him seemed to fall silent once police officers, prison guards and 
public spaces like city buses became targets of the gang's violence. 
 If his death is linked to the PCC, it will once again demonstrate 
the reach and resolve of that criminal organization.  But regardless 
 
SAO PAULO 00000988  003 OF 003 
 
 
of who committed the murder and why, the legacy of Carindiru will 
not be buried with Guimaraes; no government official has ever been 
held accountable for the massacre, even as more than 80 police 
officers still face charges stemming from the now 14-year old 
infamous event.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶10.  (U) This cable was coordinated/cleared by Embassy Brasilia. 
 
MCMULLEN