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News > Latin America

Black Actor Beaten in Sao Paulo as Security Guards Stand By

  • Diogo Cintra (in the lower middle portion of the video) is hustled out of the metro station by unidentified men.

    Diogo Cintra (in the lower middle portion of the video) is hustled out of the metro station by unidentified men. | Photo: Security Cameras

Published 21 November 2017
Opinion

Diogo Cintra said about the inaction of security guards, “It's much easier to believe some white guys' version of events.”

As Brazil marked Black Consciousness Day Monday, Diogo Cintra, a 24-year-old Black actor in Sao Paulo, was recovering from being attacked and repeatedly bit by a hoard of dogs at a central metro station.

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Video footage obtained from Parque Dom Pedro Terminal will be used by investigators to identify the perpetrators of the assault, according to Globo.

Exterior and interior metro station security cameras corroborate Cintra's testimony to Seu Jornal. On his way home from a theater play, they shows him outside the terminal fleeing from two men, one brandishing a club, the other wearing a yellow jacket and cap, a uniform worn by metro guards.

Cintra rushes inside the terminal station for help. The first guard he approached told him “just run, get out of here,” Cintra recalled.

He then dashed to a second entrance where five more guards were posted. “These guys are trying to assault and beat me,” Cintra pleaded. At this point the two men, now accompanied by three others, and barking dogs made their approach.

An inversion of facts gave way, Cintra told Seu Jornal. The two men told the guards that Cintra had attempted to rob them and that they only wanted to catch and take him away.

Internal video footage then shows Cintra being hustled out of the terminal by the unidentified men while the group of security guards stands in the background. Their inaction mirror those of passengers and passersby.

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“I was certain I'd die – that this wasn't just a beating,” Cintra said of the brutal assault by men and dogs.

Minutes later, images show a bloody Cintra staggering as he re-enters the terminal station alone. A group of security guards now offer him a wheelchair and he's rolled away.

As to why the security guards made zero effort to assist him, Cintra said, “It's much easier to believe some white guys' version of events.”

The Secretary of Public Safety released a statement informing that the attack is being investigated by the Sé 1st Police District.

Black Consciousness Day is a solemn commemoration recalling the martyrdom of Zumbi dos Palmares, leader of the African resistance camp, Quilombo dos Palmares.

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