In the back of an armored vehicle, sitting behind two men with assault rifles, Lincoln Gakiya stared out the window, restive. Standstill traffic pressed in from every direction. His security detail had already warned there was a high risk of assassination that day, and he felt fully exposed.
But Gakiya, a prosecutor in São Paulo state, believed the risk was worth it. He had a speech planned that August morning at a local law school, and he almost never missed an opportunity to make his case to the public.
Time was running out.
“Let’s see if we can jump this traffic,” Gakiya told his guards, and his convoy of three armored vehicles sped off, sirens blaring.
Since his death was ordered six years ago by the Primeiro Comando da Capital, considered South America’s most powerful drug-trafficking gang, Gakiya has lived behind a state security shield that rivals that of a Brazilian president: armored cars, blast-resistant doors, a rotating cast of 82 military police officers.
But his shield against the PCC will probably disappear. Brazil has no legislation that guarantees protection to law enforcement officials upon retirement — even those under threat — and Gakiya, 58, could soon be left to face some of the world’s most dangerous criminals alone.
Gakiya said he had three options: death, exile or persuasion. So he was pursuing the third, making public presentations and conducting media interviews all over the country — advocating for security to be provided to former officials who are in the crosshairs of organized crime.
The Washington Post followed the bookish prosecutor for parts of four months as he traveled across São Paulo state, reckoning with his uncertain fate and the consequences of his professional choices: A strained family life. Friendships, lost. So much sacrificed, and for what? Would his country stand behind him now?
Brazil: The prosecutor marked to die by South America’s most dangerous gang
