Young Italian woman murdered in Ceará

It is noteworthy that CONSERVATIVE estimates are that a foreign tourist is murdered in Brazil every 72 hours. That's probably on the low side, given that Brazilian officials love to do a juggling act to minimize the figures. God almighty, that's at least 120 tourists that come to Brazil and end up going back to their homeland in a coffin each year. Yet, nothing ever gets done about this deplorable situation.

At the same time, official figures from Itamaraty are that 980 Brazilians each year die (of ALL causes) while abroad. The vast majority of those are due to natural causes and accidents, not murder. I've seen so many news reports here about Brazilians murdered abroad over the years, and in many of them their killers are known to the victims and are, in fact, other Brazilians. However, that fact doesn't stop the public outcry here every time it happens. Funny how Brazilians don't seem quite as concerned about the number of foreigners being murdered here each year.

The latest update on this incident is that an, as yet unnamed, suspect was taken into custody and transported to the Forensic Police headquarters in Fortaleza for a complete physical examination. He was later released since no concrete evidence exists linking him with the crime at the present moment.

I just hope that when and if such evidence does link him to the murder, he won't have vanished completely as do so many others in this country. Sad to say that only 5 to 8 percent of all homicides are ever solved in Brazil, as compared to 80 percent or more in other countries.