The kidnapping of Abilio Diniz during election week
São Paulo, 1989
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
On the morning of Monday, December 11, 1989, at around 8 am, the businessman Abilio Diniz, of the Pão de Açúcar Group, was driving his Mercedes near his home in Jardim Europa, on his way to the office, when a Caravan station wagon disguised as an ambulance blocked his path. A man dressed as a military police officer overpowered him, tied him up and threw him into the van. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of about 30 million dollars, six days before the runoff of the first direct presidential election since the dictatorship.
The next day, the police discovered that the van's owner had left a contact phone number at a mechanic's shop hired to repair the vehicle. Following that number, they arrested a Chilean who confessed and named the others involved, who were arrested on the 15th. With the information from those under arrest, on the 16th about 200 police officers surrounded a two-story house at Praça Hachiro Miyazaki, in Jabaquara, where the businessman was held in a cubicle dug into the back yard, with a duct as his only ventilation.
Sources
In the game
Fake Ambulance
São Paulo, Tuesday, December 12, 1989, 11 pm, five days before the runoff election. Yesterday, at 8:02 am, on Rua Groenlândia in Jardim Europa, a white ambulance cut off the sedan of Heitor Vasconcellos, 53, owner of the Magazine Alvorada department stores.
After about 35 hours of negotiation, with the participation of Cardinal Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, Abilio Diniz was freed at 5:02 pm on December 17, election day. Ten people were arrested: five Chileans, two Argentines, two Canadians and one Brazilian, linked to Latin American guerrilla groups, who said they wanted the money to finance the guerrilla. Sentenced to terms of 26 to 28 years, later reduced, the foreigners were transferred to their home countries between 1998 and 1999.
