07/17/2024 – 22:02
The Federal Police (PF) arrested this Wednesday, 17, a man suspected of murdering the quilombola leader Flávio Gabriel Pacífico dos Santos, “Binho do Quilombo”, in 2017. He is the son of the ialorixá Bernadete Pacífico, known as “Mãe Bernadete”, who was executed in August of last year.
According to David Mendez Santiago, lawyer for the Pacífico family, the man was arrested while he was in a shopping mall in Salvador. The suspect was taken to the corporation’s headquarters in the capital of Bahia.
Binho do Quilombo was shot dead in September 2017 in the municipality of Simões Filho, which is located in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador. The crime occurred in a quilombola territory where he and Mãe Bernadete lived.
In addition to the perpetrator of the crime, the PF is still investigating what the motivation behind the murder of the religious leader might have been.
Since her son’s murder, Mother Bernadete has been fighting for clarification and a solution to the case. On August 17 of last year, she was killed by rifle shots in the Simões Filho terreiro. Between 2009 and 2018, the ialorixá was the city’s secretary of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality.
The death of the religious leader caused a stir at the Planalto Palace, with ministers Silvio Almeida (Human Rights) and Anielle Franco (Racial Equality) sending representatives from the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to Simões Filho. Retired minister Rosa Weber, who was president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) at the time, called the governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT), to demand answers about the execution.
In November of last year, the Bahia Public Prosecutor’s Office charged five men with the murder of the ialorixá. According to the prosecutor, the crime was committed because Bernadete sought to “contain the expansion of drug trafficking” in the region.
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