Buried alive. Militão says he ordered the killing out of fear

Luis Miguel Militão, known as the "Monster of Fortaleza," gave two interviews in two days in which he recounted how he ordered the deaths of six Portuguese industrialists buried alive in Brazil in 2001. Sentenced to 150 years in prison for the murder of the six men in Fortaleza, Militão spoke about the crime to Correio da Manhã and CNN Portugal 24 years later, denying being present at the time, but admitting to having given the order to kill "out of fear" that the theft of the money would be discovered and he and his accomplices would be arrested.

The details of the crime, dubbed "The Portuguese Massacre," shocked Portugal and Brazil: the six men were buried alive, having died from mechanical asphyxiation, having swallowed and breathed sand, and cement was placed over their burial site. The six Portuguese men were lured to Fortaleza, Brazil, by their fellow countryman Luís Miguel Militão. The plan involved robbery and extortion: the businessmen were kidnapped, beaten, and eventually buried alive in the kitchen of a bar in Praia do Futuro.

During a precarious release from prison for a week with an electronic bracelet, Militão admitted to giving the order over the phone to kill and bury the people, something he considered to be “his biggest mistake” in the interview with CNN Portugal, where he denied having lured the six Portuguese men to kill them or to engage in “sex tourism”.

“I only invited one person, informally, so that they could come on vacation and enjoy the beauty of the Brazilian Northeast,” the man said.

“I had left Portugal a week ago when one of the Portuguese called me, or I called him, and in an informal and calm conversation, I said that I was with some girls here in Brazil and that if he ever wanted to come, he could,” he continued, denying that there was any “criminal motivation.”

It was in Brazil that he met his accomplices, who he says induced him to harm people who were going on vacation, who grew from three to six men — with whom he says he had few ties.

"When they tricked me into committing the crime, I said, 'Man, I don't have the courage to kill anyone.' And they told me, 'Oh, I do,'" he continued, without naming names because, he says, "they are human beings who have repented."

On the day, Militão denied having seen or been there, stating that he "physically" didn't kill anyone. "All [the Portuguese] were kidnapped, including me, as a way to make it seem like I wasn't involved in the crime, so that it would be easier to provide the credit card passwords" of the men who had been held hostage.

“With this provision [of passwords], I left the tent and didn’t participate, I didn’t see, I don’t know how it happened other than through the press,” he continued.

Luis Miguel Militão also revealed that what he had agreed with his accomplices was the death of the six Portuguese, found buried under the kitchen of the Vela Latina, with cement on top.

At that moment, he recalled, all the murderers were "scared and drunk." "Without drinking, we wouldn't have had that courage," he continued. It was at that moment that the convicted man was asked if they were "really" going to do "what was agreed"—"death," not "out of cruelty" but "out of fear," because "people were afraid of being discovered [for the robbery and kidnapping] and arrested."

The thinking was that "these people would need to disappear so that the crime wouldn't be discovered." It was then that Luis Miguel Militão says he was contacted by cell phone by his accomplices. It was at that moment that he made what he calls "his biggest mistake": giving the "indirect" order.

"Of course it's being very stupid, or being sick, or being drunk, or being naive and embracing other people's ideas; or having neuroses and psychoses, in short, there's nothing else to do but suffer," he told Correio da Manhã.

He told the same newspaper that he was sorry and added that he had apologized to the families of the victims — António Correia Rodrigues; Vitor Manuel Martins; Joaquim Silva Mendes; Manuel Joaquim Barros; Joaquim Fernandes Martins; Joaquim Manuel Pestana da Costa: “Nobody forgives me, not even myself.”

Sentenced to 150 years in prison, Militão only has to serve 30 years, the maximum sentence imposed by Brazilian law. He has already served 24 years, and despite attempting to escape three times, he has asked the court for his release on several occasions.

At least seven habeas corpus petitions were filed with the Ceará Court of Justice — most of them filed by his wife — claiming that, due to the time spent working and studying in prison, he had already exceeded the limit established by Brazilian law for the maximum effective sentence, appealing for “remission of sentence” (a legal figure that allows for the reduction of prison time based on certain activities).

However, all these requests, including two reviewed by the Superior Court of Justice, were rejected. The court ruled that the reduction in sentence for work and study should be applied to the entire sentence (150 years), not the 30-year cap established by law. Thus, Militão's official release date is set for December 6, 2031.