Who killed and who ordered the killing of Djalma Santos?

By Bob Fernandes

Djalma Santos da Conceição was on the air with his show “Acorda Cidade” from 6 to 8 am. The show was aired on RCA-FM 87.9 – a community radio and the primary media of Conceicao da Feira, a municipality of 23,000 inhabitants, 126 km from Salvador, the capital city of the state of Bahia. Santos said, shouting:

“No one will shut up my voice…”

Besides being the broadcaster, 54-year-old Santos operated the audio equipment and picked up the soundtrack of the show. To support him, on Friday 22 May 2015, Santos chose the song “O radio e a televisao” by gospel duo Ruan and Rudney.

Santos repeated for the third time: “No one will shut up my voice”, and shut up for a while, turning up the sound and leaving listeners with the gospel duo:

“Radio and television are showing / How humanity lives lately / It’s man killing man…”

Shortly after 10 pm, that same Friday, Santos was playing his tambourine, as usual, in a musical circle at his property’s kiosk-bar, in the neighboring city of Governador Mangabeira.

Some 15 people gathered around the kiosk set up in a small square in the village called Sitio dos Brejos.

Three or four hooded men – loaded with guns including a machine gun – approached the kiosk and forced Santos – still holding the tambourine in his hands – to enter the trunk of a “big white car.” This piece of information it is the maximum that witnesses would provide afterward.

Exactly two years later, we – a reporter and a photographer – arrived in the city for this report and recording of the documentary about murdered journalists. We were there at 8 pm at the kiosk-bar in Sitio dos Brejos, on the outskirts of Governador Mangabeira.
In the dimly lit little square, half a dozen men hear – but do not answer – questions about Santos. When the car started to move away, someone shouted: “Write down the plate numbers!”

Santos’ body was found late in the morning on Saturday, May 23, 2015. He was at the edge of a thicket next to the highway BR-101, in a place known as Timbo, the crossroads that give access to Conceicao da Feira.

Santos was shot 15 times. On the site he was murdered, 25 cartridges of .38, .45 and .40 were found.

The crime scene also contained a set of messages. The tambourine was placed over the body, and on the top, there was a two-reais bill. He was shot in the mouth. One of the shots in the mouth went through the left eye. That evening, Santos was not wearing the bulletproof vest he had been using.

During the show “Acorda Cidade,” Djalma Santos da Conceicao, better known as Djalma “Batata,” spoke about city services, crimes, and politics.

Gustavo Ameno Coutinho was the chief of police of Conceicao da Feira at the time of the crime. Today, he works in Feira de Santana, 30 kilometers away. Two policemen were available for service at that time.

In May 2017, the chief of police talked about Santos and how far the police had reached in the investigations:

“He was a hugely popular man, very well-known locally, but he was very involved with political issues. The mainline of investigation is this: a political crime, a contract killing, hired hitmen, and the involvement of the police. There were three or four men, heavily armed, with a .40 and even a machine gun. They were large, all indicative that these are people connected to the security area.”

Carlos Medeiros, a colleague of Santos at the station and a radio broadcaster for 20 years, tried to investigate the case. He did not go further:

“The difficulties started at the Governador Mangabeira police station. The police force there [where Santos was kidnapped] said the case would have to be solved by the police in Conceicao da Feira, where Santos was found.”

The cities of Governador Mangabeira and Conceicao da Feira are border neighbors and are 15 minutes away from each other on highway BR-101.
Carlos Medeiros reported having suffered threats when he started investigating Santos’ murder:

“Fear, no, [I haven’t felt it] because I do not accuse anyone, but apprehension, yes. When I started charging responsibilities more vehemently, I received anonymous calls. The people on the phone started asking why I was dealing with this ‘if the guy sucked anyway’.”
Carlos Medeiros said:

“The chief of police (from Conceicao da Feira) Gustavo Coutinho was in charge of the investigations, summoned a lot of people for depositions, but he did not set a clear line of investigation, I think because of the complexity of the case. He closed the investigation and sent it to justice without identifying who ordered the killing.

“Why didn’t they established the breach of telephone secrecy to find out the origin of the call? It was just a matter of asking the court. I don’t think there was much interest …”

He asked chief Coutinho about the lack of investigation of the telephone threats. He replied:

“We first try to finish the police inquiry, including the hearing of all witnesses, and then we forward this procedure, from the breach of telephone secrecy to the public prosecutor, who will assess… ‘Will assess,’ ‘should have assessed’ [the matter] two years ago, and it looks like he won’t get anywhere anytime.”

Chief of police Gustavo Coutinho is no longer in Conceicao da Feira. The municipality has no public prosecutor or judge. Also, no court either, since the transferring of the court to Sao Goncalo, 10 kilometers away.

However, there is a rule that places the hopes of those waiting for a solution even further away.

This rule says that cases that have involvement of someone already imprisoned are the first to be investigated. Gustavo Coutinho works now in Feira de Santana and thus no longer for the case.

Some statistics provide a picture of the region where broadcaster Santos was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered: Feira de Santana is the 15th most violent city in the world, according to the ranking of the Mexican NGO Seguridad, Justicia y Paz.

With 620,000 inhabitants, Feira de Santana had registered 92 homicides from the beginning of 2017 until the first week of April. Conceicao de Feira, with 22,000 inhabitants, had eight homicides.

A former police chief in the city, Gustavo Ameno Coutinho says he is unaware of other murders of journalists in the region. But he made a quite significant comment:

“In retaliation, it happens that radio stations are set on fire, stoned, threatened … Usually, for a political reason.”

Varying from admiration to fear and criticism, residents of Conceicao and the region mention a particular group of the military police (PM) that works in the area with “special vigor.”

The group is called the Independent Specialized Policing Company. With uniform and denomination that refer to the hinterland region, this Company is better known as “Caatinga.”

In the city of Conceicao da Feira, the means of mass communication is the RCA radio station. Actually, there is another means, made up of one single sheet of paper called the “Democratic Independence Newsletter” – written and printed by citizen Wanderlei Mascarenhas. He also distributes the newsletter in person in the City Council and on the streets.

The small house that hosts the 12-year-old community radio station is also the address of a shop called RCA Eletronica e Informatica.
Raimundo “Rai” Conceição Apolinário has run the shop and the radio station. News shows such as those by Djalma Santos and Carlos Medeiros are minorities in RCA. The station, like so many inland Brazil, rents schedules to churches – chiefly neo-pentecostal churches.

Djalma “Batata” Santos paid 400 reais per month for the rent of two hours a day. Before, he had worked as a broadcaster in the neighboring cities of Cachoeira and Cruz das Almas.

Like the rest of RCA stations – and thousands of radio broadcasters in a country with more than 14,000 radio stations – Santos looked to advertisers to make ends meet. Due to the legal status of community broadcasters, such remuneration cannot be called a “salary.”
At the entrance of the small studio where radio broadcasters also operate the audio equipment – a small room with a worn sofa that eventually serves as a bed, an old television, and an old fan on the table – there is a pile of cardboard boxes in the background with a sign: “Caution: fragile.”

A glass window separates the small room from the studio. A piece of paper pasted on the studio door shows the commandments for RCA-FM broadcasters. On top of the paper, there’s a “100% Jesus” message. Below, the “Norms of the Station,” written by Rai.

“The broadcaster must be careful when using the microphone.
The broadcaster cannot attack someone’s honor or morale through the radio station.
The broadcaster must end the show at the exact time.
The broadcaster must pay the support fee of the show on the set date. Failure to comply will lead to the suspension of the show until payment is made.
It is not allowed to drop hints at colleagues on the microphone or in the station…”

We recorded interviews with Rai Conceição, broadcaster Carlos Medeiros, and Vilma dos Santos da Conceicao in the small room next to the studio. Vilma Conceicao is one of the 24 children Santos had in his countless relationships.

She is the mother of three of Santos’ grandchildren. She was sad about the impunity and the silence surrounding the crime:

“He was not afraid to say anything to anyone. People don’t even comment, they are afraid, they tell me to leave it alone. I’d like to know who killed him. Even to forgive, for us to have peace. My grandmother is no longer healthy. My brother is depressed. I have nightmares, every day I dream about my father. My father asking for justice, showing a person (who would have killed him). A week before the murder, I told him to be careful because I dreamed that he was shot several times.”

Carlos Medeiros and Vilma Conceicao say that Djalma was saying that he would “get into politics.” He announced that he wanted to be a candidate for councilman or even mayor. Medeiros, who succeeded Santos in the mornings with his show “Alerta Geral”, said:

“Djalma (Santos) was a very dear person in the city. He did an outstanding social work, donated basic staples, personal hygiene supplies. But he had a lot of issues and foes. He had a hot temper. If he didn’t like something a listener said, he would swear, cursed the mother [of the listener]. We always called his attention to that.

Rai Conceicao, also responsible for the musical attractions on Saturday mornings, said:

“Santos read news from the internet and made comments in his own way. He said: ‘A good outlaw is a dead outlaw’, ‘There is no point in saying that you are going to kill me because no one gets hurt when bullets are exchanged’… He said he had a gun, but I never saw it.”
Rai recalled telling Santos to slow down his criticism:

“I always said that because he was too fierce when claiming or commenting on something. I stressed that because someone could misinterpret him. We were a little worried; he was very spontaneous, a little nervous, he was stressed with people who called to provoke him. He exploded while in the air a few times. Because of that, the radio station still handles two lawsuits.”

Mayor Raimundo da Cruz Bastos, known as “Pompilio” also called Santos during “Acorda Cidade.”

The subject of those days – and that of the morning of Friday, May 22 – was Santos’ help to a poor lady who wanted to rebuild her house, on the verge of collapsing, in the village of Povoado do Pinheiro, in Conceicao da Feira.

Motivated by a touching phone call, Santos collected donations and, on the air, insisted that he would help the lady of Povoado Pinheiro:
“If we take 30, 40, 50, 100 reais out of our pocket to help a person in need, will it end (our assets)? We leave everything when we die. Your mother-in-law, your wife, son-in-law, widow, the whole world will enjoy [your assets].”

By phone, Pompilio called in the middle of one of the shows. Vilma Conceicao, Santos’ daughter, said:

“He (the mayor) said that this was [an issue] for Social Assistance. One person called and spoke on the air: ‘Djalma [Santos], you ass kisser, you tramp, why don’t you ask the mayor? I’ll give you yours’, just like that. He (Santos) said that the only way he would not rebuild the house was if someone killed him.”

Santos assumed the inconvenience at the beginning of the show: “Today, I am not well, I am not fine. I want to wish a good special day to all my beautiful people.”

He also sent a message to his nemesis. He said: “There is always someone who doesn’t like me, but that’s the way it is, I don’t care about it, the important thing is what I do and am and what I am regardless of any situation.”

Daughter Vilma Conceicao said:

“He was saying he would run for mayor. And it hurt deep in my heart. He said he helped a lot of people and they asked him to run. Then he said he was giving up [the idea].”

Radio broadcaster Carlos Medeiros said:

“It is widely known that Santos wanted to be a councilman in the municipality. There is speculation as well [of running for mayor]. He was quite popular.

Nuzia Alves das Dores is Santos’ sister. The catchphrase she used on her cell phone gives a hint of her personality: “Every ant becomes a lion when it faces a united family.”

A sister-in-law, Leni, was the one who called Dores on the night of May 22, 2015, and warned: “Santos was kidnapped.”

Dores took her motorcycle and, shortly after 11 pm, drove off to the Santos’ kiosk in Sitio dos Brejos. She returned home at dawn, waiting for news.

Early in the morning, she left again on her motorcycle – and found her brother’s body shot on a thicket in Timbo. That same morning, she went to Santos’ house, and took his cell phone, a tape recorder, and flash drives.

A widow, mother of three, Dores lives in Projeto II, at Rua Procopio Teixeira da Silva.

On the sofa in the living room at her home, Dores is sitting next to her daughter, Ana Luiza, her niece, Marizete, daughter of Santos, and her mother and Santos’, Domingas Alves das Dores. “The witnesses say nothing,” says Dores.

“Santos was worried, he said he was threatened, but without saying by whom.”

Dores’ accounts confirmed what Carlos Medeiros, Santos’ colleague, revealed in detail:

“On the day he was murdered, he left the studio arguing a lot with someone on the phone. Since I was about to start my show, I asked him what was going on. He told me he had been threatened, but he did not say by whom…”

Domingas Alves das Dores, Santos’ mother, did not say a word. Throughout the conversation, with her right elbow propped on the sofa, she was limited to wiping tears with the back of her right hand from time to time. She paid even more attention when her daughter told us:

“Santos said someone from politics was chasing him because he had received a proposal to be a city councilor. He was wearing a bulletproof vest.”

She also said that a man went to the kiosk-bar (in Governador Mangabeira) looking for Santos. And left a threat with an employee: Santos would not last 30 days. Dores said: “He had denounced drug dealers.”

The conversation jumped to speculation about other possible reasons for Santos’ murder besides politics.

Earlier, in an interview recorded on RCA-FM, Conceicao – Santos’ daughter – said: “He said in the air that he had a bomb that was going to shake Conceicao da Feira and Sao Gonçalo dos Campos. He promised to reveal it on Monday.”

Among the hypotheses for the killing, revenge on one of the Santos’ countless love relationships was topping the list. During the interview on the radio, Conceicao told us:

“… he was a ladies’ man, but he never got involved with married women. One day he was with one woman, half an hour later with another, a lot of dating, affairs…”

Another hypothesis was suggested by his colleagues Carlos Medeiros and Rai Conceicao during the interview on RCA-FM:

“He was investigating the murder of a young girl buried in a mangrove in Cachoeira, some fifteen kilometers from here. She was reportedly killed for cheating on someone she was related to and who was part of a drug trafficking group,” said Carlos Medeiros.

Rai said: “He went alone to a place where the police do not enter, to see where the young woman had been buried.”

A third hypothesis arises from a political disagreement. It took place in 2014 and involved the current mayor of Cachoeira, Tato Pereira. The report as told by Carlos Medeiros:

“Pereira was a candidate for the state congress and invaded the studio swearing and accusing Santos of asking him for bribes. Santos would have said in the show that no one should vote on Pereira because he was not from Conceicao da Feira. He was then interested in supporting Mayor Pompilio’s candidate, Targino Machado.”

Rai da Conceição described the end of that dispute:
“Pereira came [to the radio station] to demand his right of reply for something that Santos had said on the air, and he did not like it. We talked, gave him the right to reply, and everything was fine.”

Rai said: “It appears that Santos had gone to the politician’s house to borrow 1,000 reais to complete the amount of just over 3,000 reais, which was necessary for the surgery of one of his children who had suffered an accident.”

Aware of these hypotheses, in August 2017 Gustavo Ameno Coutinho – the chief of police who started the investigation of Santos’ murder – sustained his opinion:

“The main line of investigation is one of a political crime, a contract killing using hitmen and involving policemen…”

Those who are in the business believe in hypotheses close to this last one. They do not believe in a crime of passion or the revenge thesis. Conceicao da Feira is a small village, where everyone knows each other.

It is impossible to think of who would have enough money and willingness to hire and pay three or four policemen-lookalike men armed with machine guns and pistols and aboard a “big white car.”

Those are men who kidnaped someone in public, killed viciously, with cruelty, and remained hidden, protected by a wall of silence for more than two years. The father’s love life was summed up by Conceicao, one of the 24 children of Djalma Santos:

“We, offspring of the first marriage, are five children. We are twenty-four children, but we don’t know if it’s all his [children], because some of his women had children when they met him. Some, we know. He took them as his children, played with them, was affectionate, did not let anyone unassisted.”

Therefore, and since we fought for so many, Djalma Santos ran other businesses. We had a little pest control firm, a chicken farm, and the kiosk-bar where he was kidnapped to be murdered.

Dores, Santos’ sister, decided to show the flash drives, the cell phone, and the small tape recorder after two hours of conversation. She took this material inside her brother’s house on Saturday, May 23, 2015, and kept it until the police asked for it.

The flash drives included songs that Santos used as a musical background in “Acorda Cidade.” Among them, “O radio e a televisao,” by the gospel duo Ruan and Rudney.

Santos’ old recorder battery had run out, so Dores asked her neighbor for new batteries.

There’s absolute silence when the recorder is finally turned on, and Santos’ voice echoed through the room.

His mother, Domingas, sobbed. Dores’ daughter, Ana Luíza, 7 years-old, followed the conversation and paid attention to everything.
The silence suffocated when Santos repeated thrice:

“No one will shut up my voice…”

Recorder off. Domingas das Dores, Djalma Santos’ mother, broke the silence and murmured:

“It never goes away, only when I die.”