A Brazilian politician has been taken into custody after attempting to hide from the police following a conviction for child rape. Nilson Nelson Machado began self-identifying as a woman while on the run from law enforcement, and his identity change complicated efforts to bring him to justice.
A former state deputy for Florianópolis, Machado was sentenced to just over 31 years in jail in 2017 for the mistreatment and sexual abuse of multiple children and adolescents who were under the care of a youth shelter he had managed for over thirty years.
According to the allegations, which were made public in 2013, the 63-year-old would bribe children and teenagers with money in exchange for foot massages and other sexually explicit acts at the care center called Lar do Tio Duduco, which translates to Uncle Duduco’s Home. “Duduco” was Machado’s nickname.
One victim, who came forward at the age of 20, revealed that Machado began sexually abusing him when he was 13. Another victim who made his allegations public confirmed that Machado molested him when he was only 11 years old. Both of the incidents occurred in the late 1990s.
In addition to being sexually abused, victims also alleged that they were physically beaten and deprived of food if they did not submit to Machado’s demands. One of the victims also said he was threatened with expulsion from the shelter, which would have resulted in him having to live on the streets.
Although the 63-year-old publicly denied the allegations against him, footage recorded without his knowledge captured the former politician admitting in detail that he had been intimate with children and teenagers at the daycare.
“In my weakness, I got involved with [redacted] and then when I separated from [redacted], [redacted] started to cross my path,” he explained in the 30-minute video. The names of the victims were redacted by law enforcement.
In 2017, Machado, who served in the Legislative Assembly of Santa Catarina from 2003-2007 under the Progressive Party and Democratic Labor Party, was sentenced to just over 31 years in prison for the crimes by Judge Marcelo Carlin. But Carlin later reduced his sentence to 20 years after Machado submitted an appeal in 2019 claiming “he did not commit the conduct alleged against him or, at the very least, that the conduct alleged against him in the indictment had not been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
Because he was not remanded to custody at the time, Machado took the opportunity to flee soon after filing his appeal. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he had absconded to another city in the country, and changed his legal documentation to obscure his identity.
Taking on the name Catarina da Lapa, Machado began identifying as a “trans woman” and later moved to Rio de Jeneiro.
The quick change was made possibly by Brazil’s relaxed gender self-identification laws, which stipulate that individuals may change their legal gender and name at any time without any medical diagnosis or “gender affirming” treatment required. The landmark ruling, handed down by the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2018, aimed to simplify the process for transgender people to have their gender identity legally recognized.
Federal Police were successfully able to locate Machado after sorting through the necessary data from other Government departments, and confronted him in Rio de Janeiro.
The former politician first attempted to deny he was the person police were looking for, presenting false documentation insisting he had never been known as Nilson Nelson. He was finally taken into custody last week.
In addition to allowing anyone to change their legal name and sex on request, Brazil has some of the most “pro-trans” legislation in the world, and the Brazilian criminal code imposes harsh penalties for those convicted of “transphobia.”
In 2019, Brazil’s top court ruled that discrimination against the “LGBTQ Community” constituted a penal offense, but fell under existing race-based protections as a form of “social racism.” This came a few years after State Police in São Paolo began to include trans-identified males in “femicide” statistics.
As a result of the 2019 ruling, multiple women have reported being threatened with jail time for expressing criticisms of gender ideology or of trans-identified males, with their supposed crimes” being deemed “transphobic insult.”
As previously reported by Reduxx, a trans-identified male skateboarder accused of emotionally and physically abusing at least three women has retained an attorney that has accused the victims of criminal transphobia for speaking out on their experiences.
Luiza Marchiori, previously Luiz Neto, had been competing in the sport as a man for almost two decades, securing several championship titles before announcing his new gender identity last year.
In June, despite many of his competitors being young girls, the 30-year-old secured a women’s award at the Itacoatiara Pro. Around that same time, allegations were brought forward against Marchiori, claiming he had abused women he had dated in the past.
Despite three women coming forward to detail the abuse they faced while dating Marchiori, who claims to be “pansexual,” he shared a statement from his attorney on Instagram claiming to be a victim of transphobia.
“Luiza is the victim of transphobia. There is no evidence capable of incriminating Luiza and whoever is accusing must prove it and if they do not prove it, they are liable for the crimes of slander, defamation and transphobic insult.”