The Candelaria Massacre

Just after midnight, in the early morning of 23 July 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 Candelaria. The incident became known as the Candelaria Massacre and it roused the people of Rio - the Cariocas - from their normal accommodation with violence and took them to the streets in protest.Shortly before the shootings at the ch ...