“I prefer to see People in unhealthy form,” Pires Bragança mentioned.
Cavalcante, a 34-year-old Brazilian man sentenced to life final month for stabbing ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao to dying in entrance of her two younger kids in 2021, staged a spectacular escape from the Chester County Jail on Aug. 31, crab-walking up partitions, scrambling by means of barbed wire and bolting throughout a roof. (Authorities and media in the USA have rendered his first identify as Danelo.) He’s additionally needed in his native Brazil, the place he’s accused of capturing a person to dying in 2017.
Cavalcante’s run from justice transfixed Latin America, a area that admires U.S. energy whereas resenting its centuries of interference and exploitation. Some have seen him as a logo of resistance to the behemoth to the north.
“Shut to 2 weeks, escape of a Brazilian man embarrasses police within the U.S.,” O Globo crowed in Wednesday’s print editions. The Rio de Janeiro-based newspaper and different media right here supplied day by day updates on the search. TikTok movies have drawn hundreds of thousands of views. Memes that includes crab-walking figures or photographs of Cavalcante’s escape have proliferated.
“Brazilians don’t seem on any record,” one person posted on Twitter, above an Interpol Crimson Discover that includes Cavalcante’s scowling mug: “Danilo Cavalcante, a Brazilian in the USA, on the Interpol Crimson Listing, seeing this.”
Vera Iaconelli, a psychoanalyst in São Paulo, says the killer’s emergence as a form of cult hero is smart.
“We usually tend to determine ourselves with the weaker facet of the story, the person alone in opposition to the establishment with extra sources, intelligence and weapons,” she mentioned. “However on this case, he isn’t just the weak facet of the story, he’s Brazilian, a Latino, somebody from South America. He represents a area that has traditionally suffered within the arms of the U.S.”
“Could he survive to have the ability to inform the story,” Pires Bragança, 41, tweeted Tuesday. After Pennsylvania state police captured Cavalcante, he informed The Washington Publish he was stunned.
“I believed the police would kill him,” he mentioned. “However now I actually hope there’s a movie or documentary about him. I want to perceive his facet of the story — however not the facet of the murders he dedicated, the facet of his escape. That escape was spectacular.”
Iaconelli underscores the purpose. “There’s a distinction between following the saga and being fascinated by the dispute between the weak versus the sturdy and sympathizing with the crimes he dedicated,” she mentioned. “What must be clear is that, ultimately, we needed him to be captured.
“It has the enjoyable of a cleaning soap opera, and we need to see all of the episodes intimately, nevertheless it has to finish sooner or later. In any other case, it stops being enjoyable and turns into worrying because of the harsh actuality of impunity,” Iaconelli mentioned.
Eduardo Carlos, 27, has been sharing 3D animations of Cavalcante’s escape on TikTok. “I’ve been immersed on this story for days,” he mentioned. “My laptop has tabs open to American and Brazilian newspapers, I’m studying every little thing I can.”
The response has been speedy. His movies have drawn hundreds of thousands of views. A report on Cavalcante’s seize Wednesday drew greater than 150,000 within the first hours.
“Folks need to see the second season,” he mentioned. “Folks root for him. However I don’t consider they sympathize with the crime. They sympathize with the issue he was going through and, till now, he had managed to beat everybody.”
