2 tourists on Rio minibus abducted, woman raped
Source: Agencies |
April 3, 2013, Wednesday
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An American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transport van while her French boyfriend was shackled, hit with a crowbar and forced to watch the attacks after the pair boarded the vehicle in Rio de Janeiro's showcase Copacabana beach neighborhood, police said.
A third man, aged 21, was arrested for the attacks, which took place over six hours starting shortly after midnight on Saturday, police said yesterday. Two men aged 20 and 22 had already been taken into custody for the attacks, police said. A young Brazilian woman has come forward to say that she, too, was raped by the same men in the van on March 23.
"The victims described everything in great detail, mostly the sexual violence," police officer Rodrigo Brant said. "Just how they described the facts was shocking - the violence and brutality. It surprised even us, who work in security and are used to hearing such things. Their report shocked us."
The incidents raise new questions about security in Rio, which has cracked down on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting next year's football World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic games. The city also will host to World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that will be attended by Pope Francis and is expected to draw some 2 million people in late July.
Officials from the local Olympic and World Cup organizing committees didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The attack also drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus. Six men beset a 23-year-old university student and male friend after they boarded a private bus, touching off a wave of protests across India demanding stronger protection for women. Officials there say tourism has dropped in the country following the attacks.
In the Brazil case, police said in a statement that the suspects forced other passengers to get out of the van and then raped the female tourist inside the vehicle, which was one of a fleet of vans that serve the city's bus routes and that seat about a dozen people.
Such van services are often linked to organized crime in Rio, particularly the militias largely comprised of former police and firemen that control large swaths of the city's slums and run clandestine services such as transportation and sell cooking fuel and illegal cable TV hookups. In general, tourists avoid the vans and opt for regular buses or taxis.
Sexual assaults on tourists are not common in Rio, with muggings and petty crime reported more frequently.
A third man, aged 21, was arrested for the attacks, which took place over six hours starting shortly after midnight on Saturday, police said yesterday. Two men aged 20 and 22 had already been taken into custody for the attacks, police said. A young Brazilian woman has come forward to say that she, too, was raped by the same men in the van on March 23.
"The victims described everything in great detail, mostly the sexual violence," police officer Rodrigo Brant said. "Just how they described the facts was shocking - the violence and brutality. It surprised even us, who work in security and are used to hearing such things. Their report shocked us."
The incidents raise new questions about security in Rio, which has cracked down on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting next year's football World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic games. The city also will host to World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that will be attended by Pope Francis and is expected to draw some 2 million people in late July.
Officials from the local Olympic and World Cup organizing committees didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The attack also drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus. Six men beset a 23-year-old university student and male friend after they boarded a private bus, touching off a wave of protests across India demanding stronger protection for women. Officials there say tourism has dropped in the country following the attacks.
In the Brazil case, police said in a statement that the suspects forced other passengers to get out of the van and then raped the female tourist inside the vehicle, which was one of a fleet of vans that serve the city's bus routes and that seat about a dozen people.
Such van services are often linked to organized crime in Rio, particularly the militias largely comprised of former police and firemen that control large swaths of the city's slums and run clandestine services such as transportation and sell cooking fuel and illegal cable TV hookups. In general, tourists avoid the vans and opt for regular buses or taxis.
Sexual assaults on tourists are not common in Rio, with muggings and petty crime reported more frequently.
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