Assault took place at dawn on Saturday, with the consul, his family and employees of the residence being held hostage for a few hours.
Luiz Gaspar da Silva, consul general of Portugal in Rio de Janeiro, were victims of a robbery, in his official residence, which will have left him and his family traumatized. According to additional clarifications made in the last hours by the vice-consul, the event did not result in physical damage.
“They are physically fine, obviously quite traumatized, as we all would be, but they are fine. Everything is fine with the consul’s family and there is nothing to report, either with the consul’s family or with the employees,” added the diplomat.
The robbery took place at 2:00 am on Saturday, 5:00 am in Lisbon, with the family and employees being surprised by the robbers. During the time that the criminals remained in the residence, the Portuguese consul, his family and officials will have done hostages.
Augusto Santos Silva, Minister of Foreign Affairs, revealed that of the robbery. In the robbery “there was neither violence nor injuries, but they were stolen various personal property.
According to information transmitted by witnesses to police officers, the assailants were armed and apparently didn’t know that the residence was a consulate – they thought it was a mere mansion.
Flávio Martins, President of the Council of Portuguese Communities (CCP) and residing in Rio de Janeiro, lamented the crime occurred in the neighborhood of Botafogo and he says he hopes that the psychological consequences do not cause a “very big damage” to those involved.
“We are all united and we hope that this does not cause them too much damage, in a psychological sense, and that they know that Rio de Janeiro is a good and welcoming city, despite having all these issues that may exist in all big cities, but that in Rio de Janeiro end up happening more often“he stated.
Despite not having many details of what happened during the robbery, Flávio Martins knows that the robbers immobilized the security and, consequently, they managed to enter the residence “and stayed there for hours, looking for valuable objects that they could take”, “arrested the consul and the family in a room for some time, there being, therefore, a situation of psychological torture”, which “could have ended until worse“.
