RECIFE, Pernambuco (Brazil) — Last week, newspapers here reported that the Regional Labor Court of the 6th Region had sentenced the former mayor of Tamandaré, Sérgio Hacker Corte Real, and his wife, Sari Mariana Costa Gaspar Corte Real, to pay R$2.01 million (approx.

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RECIFE, Pernambuco (Brazil) — Last week, newspapers here reported that the Regional Labor Court of the 6th Region had sentenced the former mayor of Tamandaré, Sérgio Hacker Corte Real, and his wife, Sari Mariana Costa Gaspar Corte Real, to pay R$2.01 million (approx. US $400,000) in damages to the family of Miguel Otávio, who died after falling from the 9th floor of the luxury building where the couple lived, and the child’s mother worked as their maid. The verdict, which will still be appealed by the couple, came more than three years after the child’s death. I wrote about this case, yet another crime against Black people in Brazil, three years ago (Vermelho, June 5, 2020), as follows. Sadly the echoes of this case can be found not only all over Brazil but everywhere touched by the history of slavery and exploitation.

The case of little Miguel, the son of domestic worker Mirtes, reveals the horror of class injustice in Brazil—and in this crime, the current custom of killing Black people among Brazilians.