U.S. tourist in Brazil kidnapped, robbed and raped in front of boyfriend on bus during 6-hour nightm

An American student was kidnapped, robbed and raped in front of her shackled French boyfriend during a horrifying six-hour ordeal on a minibus in Brazil, police said.

The nightmare ride in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday was part of a sex crime spree by a group of men, authorities said Tuesday, calling the sick plot a “party of evil.” It also paralleled other gruesome gang rapes and murders of women and tourists in developing countries.

The couple had boarded the minibus near the tourist-heavy Copacabana beach around 1 a.m. Three men hijacked the vehicle and forced everyone else off, police said.

The male victim was allegedly cuffed and beaten with a crowbar — then made to watch as the woman was repeatedly raped.

The attackers are also accused of seizing the victims’ credit cards and using them to withdraw cash from ATMs across the area. Police said they even used the cards to pay for fuel for the minibus at two gas stations.

The Globo television network aired surveillance camera images of two men filling up the white van and showed police images of a metal bar the suspects are thought to have used to beat and intimidate the victims.

The terrifying ordeal ended when the accused rapists dumped the terrified couple in Itaborai, more than 30 miles away from Rio, Brazil's O Globo newspaper reported.

Two men — Jonathan Foudakis de Souza, 20, and Wallace Aparecido Souza Silva, 22 — were arrested soon after the incident. A third man, 21-year-old Carlos Armando Costa dos Santos, was later arrested.

Police said a cell phone belonging to one of the victims was found on one of the suspects.

Police wouldn’t identify the victims’ nationalities, although the pair were in Brazil studying Portuguese for about a month. The U.S. State Department on Monday confirmed that the woman is a U.S. citizen, while a French consular source told Agence France-Presse that her partner is from France.

The pair has since left Brazil, but police said the victims had positively identified two of the suspects. A Brazilian woman also came forward and claimed she was assaulted by the same men on March 23.

In an interview with Globo television, Rio commanding officer Alexandre Braga said the suspects were on a sex-fueled rampage.

“The characteristics of both crimes, both the Brazilian case and the one with the foreigners, lead us to believe that they (the suspects) wanted to have a ‘party of evil,’ in quotes,” Braga said. “The principal motive appears to have been the satisfaction of their lust.”

The attack also drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus. Six men brutalized 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.

Also in India earlier this month, a Swiss tourist told police that she was raped by eight men during a cycling trip with her husband. The couple had been beaten and robbed as well, according to reports.

In Mexico in February, six Spanish women vacationing in Acapulco were raped by a group of masked gunmen inside their beachfront home, police said.

The alleged incident in Brazil comes at an especially visible time for Rio, where security issues are under scrutiny. The city will host several high-profile events over the next few years, including a visit from Pope Francis during July's World Youth Day, expected to draw some 2 million Catholics. The 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics are also set to attract millions.

Reference

Moran, L., & Ortiz, E. (2013). U.S. tourist in Brazil kidnapped, robbed and raped in front of boyfriend on bus during 6-hour nightmare: Police. Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/u-s-student-kidnapped-raped-bus-brazil-article-1.1305356

#crime #Brazil