appeal had been lodged against the previous file. No other response has been received. (See the full text of the reply in footnote 3.) 8. On August 25, 2000 the petitioners sent new information on the status of the case, which was forwarded to the State on August 30, with a request for a reply within 30 days. At the time this report was written, no answer had been received from the State. III. FACTS ALLEGED IN THE PETITION A. Background Information 9. Complainants note the prevalence of police violence in 1995 throughout the state of Rio Grande do Norte and especially in its capital, Natal. Allegedly, Deputy Secretary of Public Security, Maurilio Pinto de Medeiros (Pinto) participated in the coordination of a death squad known as the “Meninos de Ouro” (Golden Boys), comprised of civil police officers and employees of the State Secretariat of Public Security under Pinto’s direction. 10. According to the complaint, during Pinto’s tenure as Deputy Secretary of Public Security, the Golden Boys, acting as state agents under Pinto’s direction, committed a series of human rights violations, including torture and murder. 11. The complaint refers to particular instances of police violence, 3 including the Mãe Luiza massacre, which occurred on March 5, 1995. Police Officer Jorge Luiz Fernandes, known as Jorge the Smotherer, 4 allegedly kicked down the door of Maria Lúcia Costa’s home at 1:30 in the morning, shot her in the face and shot her two sleeping children at close-range, injuring her daughter in the arm and hip and blinding her son in one eye. Allegedly, Fernandes continued to fire eight more shots, killing her husband, and then killed a pregnant woman observing the massacre from a neighboring window. Evidence suggests the crime was committed to prevent the husband from testifying about Fernandes’ involvement in another crime. Since the massacre, Mrs. Costa and her son have been stalked and threatened regarding their testimonies. 5 12. The complaint also notes the torture of Arivone Gonçalves who was allegedly taken to Pinto’s office at the State Secretariat for Public Security by three Golden Boys (Ranulfo Alves de Filho, Admilson Fernandes, and Maurilio Pinto de Medeiros, Jr.) on April 2, 1993. The three agents interrogated, kicked, beat, and electrocuted Gonçalves through wires attached to his back, face, tongue, teeth, and testicles. 6 Despite complaints by Gonçalves and his attorney, Gilson Nogueira (the primary subject of this petition), no serious investigation into the torture was conducted. 13. The third example of police violence noted in the complaint concerned Fernandes’ and Ranulfo’s alleged shooting of Wanderley Dantas Marques on December 18, 1993, for a fee of 200,000 cruzeiros. 7 Fernandes then allegedly fired into a crowd of bystanders, killing Jeferson do Nascimento, a sixteen-year-old boy. 8 Nascimento’s family reported the incident to police officers at the hospital, at the local precinct, and at the Secretariat for Public Security; 9 however, a police inquiry into the case was not opened until two years later when Gilson Nogueira pressured prosecutors to investigate this incident in connection with numerous other homicides attributed to Fernandes. 3 In petitions concerning that case, requesting precautionary measures, complainants mention 31 cases of killings, murders, attacks, and torture that they attribute to this already accused death squad. 4 In the investigation carried out by the Office of the Attorney General and the report on it issued on July 31, 1995, Jorge Luis Fernandes (alias Jorge Abafador) is registered as charged with the commission, alone or in association with others, of five homicides, three attempted murders, and cases of serious bodily harm. 5 Testimony of Maria Lúcia Costa during proceedings in Processo No. 5.030/95 pronounced on November 8, 1996, before the Criminal Court of Rio Grande do Norte and subsequently repeated on October 6, 1995, in the State Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Norte before the President of the Federal Human Rights Commission of the Federal Chamber of Deputies. 6 Deposition of Arivone Gonçalves signed by him and his attorney, Gilson Nogueira and confirmed in an interview between Gonçalves and a representative for the petitioner. 7 Equivalent to US$770.00 at the time. 8 Human Rights Watch/Americas at 97. 9 Interview of Jeane do Nascimento on August 13, 1997. 2