Criminal Factions Target Young Girls in Cear

[Judi Lynn]

Murders of teenaged girls increased 43% in the last two years
Jan.6.2020 1:46PM

Luiza, 15, was still playing with dolls in the narrow space of the two-room shack where she lived with her grandmother on the outskirts of Fortaleza. But instead of being among the debutantes of the year, she made another perversive list: decreed girls - girls who are put on a hit list by a criminal faction.

She was taken from her home, tortured for hours, and shot seven times. The granddaughter is the fourth person murdered in the family of Neide, 70. "She was a child, but she had friendships that are useless," said the slight grandmother, who only sees through one eye and has few teeth in her mouth.

The circumstances of her death are still unclear. According to the matriarch, it was a colleague who turned the girl over to the criminal group that controls the neighborhood, to overcome the accusation that she was an informant to the rival faction.

Luiza's story is not an isolated case. But it is part of a series of murders that ignited an alarm in Ceará: criminal factions are killing girls over local rivalries between the groups. Their murders are then exposed on social media, escalating the cruelty.

More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2020/01/criminal-factions-target-young-girls-in-ceara.shtml