Brazilian police say they have identified four of 33 suspects involved in the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro that intensified public calls for action against the endemic problem.
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Arrest warrants have been issued in the case, including one for the 16-year-old girl’s 19-year-old boyfriend, the BBCwrote, citing a police report. The girl told the police that she was briefly alone with him but remembered nothing until she woke up naked the next day in another building among dozens of men who had guns.
A video of the sexual assault was first seen in Brazilian social media on Tuesday.
The search is concentrated in a poor neighborhood in west Rio de Janeiro.
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However, it came to the light on this Wednesday after more than 800 people contacted a hotline in the state public prosecutor’s office to report about the video and tweets posted online.
And this week the Brazilian Education Minister met with actor and ex-model Alexandre Frota, who has said on a number of occasions he would have sex with a woman without her consent.
The crime and video sharing has prompted intense reaction from women’s rights organizations and commentators on social networks. “It even shocked the police”, said Fernando Veloso, the head of the civil police in Rio de Janeiro. There have also been numerous expressions of anger over the assault on social media, under the hashtag #EstuproNuncaMais, or “Rape never again”.
On the other hand, many Facebook users in Brazil, including suspended President Dilma Rousseff, changed their profile pictures to the Venus female gender symbol with words calling for an end to this “culture of rape”.
Police said the men were armed, though it was not clear if the weapons were used to intimidate the victim during the attack.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s acting President Michel Temer condemned the assault as a “barbaric crime” in a message on his Twitter account, and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Experts say many cases of rape in Brazil go unreported as victims fear retaliation, shame, and blame for the violence they have suffered.
“The day-to-day culture of codifying women’s bodies persists in Brazil”. It is estimated that only 35% of rapes in Brazil are reported.
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A collective of journalists has posted a satirical image of citizens donning devil’s horns, condemning a rape victim for having provoked the attack.
