The Candelaria Massacre: How Wagner dos Santos Survived the Street Children's Killing that Shook Brazil

Just after midnight, in the early morning of July 23, 1993, a group of men later identified as off-duty policemen opened fire on a group of street children sleeping rough outside one of Rio de Janeiro’s most prominent landmarks—the Church of Our Lady of the Candelária. The incident became known as the Candelária Massacre and it roused the people of Rio—the Cariocas—and took them to the streets in protest. Shortly before the shootings at the church the policemen picked up three boys returning to Candelária from the beach and took them off in their car to be shot elsewhere. Shot and left for dead, one of them survived. His survival altered the political landscape. His name is Wagner dos Santos. This is his story. Wagner Santos’s intensely tragic, involving, and fascinating personal history is also a glimpse into the dark complexities and cultural landscape of Rio de Janeiro, one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the world.