Esther Acosta Cuba, Serial Killer – Argentina & Paraguay, 2015

In early September 2020 Esther Acosta Cuba (39) was arrested at Caazapá, Paraguay on the charge of murdering her niece, Emilia Beatriz Acosta López (20), in the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina in March 2015. The motive was theft of money and jewelry. The woman’s body was discovered by her Bolivian boyfriend. Emilia had been strangled. Police looked at footage from security cameras, allowing them to identify the perpetrator. She was soon arrested, yet escaped from the Argentine prison where she was serving time. She went underground, sheltered in Ciudad del Este, by several drug traffickers, however, she made sporadic visits to her mother's house located in the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús.  It was in her mother’s home that police finally located the fugitive.

Previous to the murder of her niece for which she is accused, Esther Acosta Cuba had already been convicted of two homicides. in 2001, in the city of San Lorenzo she was convicted of a robbery-murder of a veteran of the Chaco War, fought between Bolivia and Paraguay in 1932-35 over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region. For this crime Ms. Cuba was imprisoned for 6 years, and was released on parole. was convicted of manslaughter, death in a traffic accident, was sentenced to two years, but was given a suspended sentence.

[Source: Antonio Caballero, “Crimen en Argentina: Detienen en Caazapá a mujer que supuestamente mató a su sobrina,” Suceso Radio & TV, Sep. 9, 2020]

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CHRONOLOGY

2001 – murder committed during San Lorenzo, Paraguay, sentenced to 6 years.

Mar. 26, 2001 – "El Buen Pastor" women's penitentiary in Asunción.

May 11, 2006 – released from prison Paraguay.

Feb. 19, 2008 – convicted of manslaughter, death in a traffic accident, was sentenced to two years, but was given a suspended sentence.

Mar. 3, 2015 – Murders Emilia Beatriz Acosta López, 20 (daughter of the brother of the apprehended) niece; Flores neighborhood, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2016 – Esther Acosta Cuba was arrested, but managed to escape from a prison in Argentina and hid in Ciudad del Este, protected by several drug traffickers, however, she made sporadic visits to her mother's house located in the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. 

Sep. 9(?), 2020 – arrested at Caazapá, Paraguay.

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Maria Nazaré Félix de Lima, Serial Killer – Brazil, 2017

On July 26, 2014, Maria Nazaré Félix de Lima, 62, was arrested in Ielmo Marinho, Police say that she had during her long homicidal romantic career killed a total of five husbands and boyfriends over the years. In her home town of 12 thousand inhabitants she was a legend, known as “The 'Black Widow' of Rio Grande do Norte.”

Coming from a family of nine children, Nazaré lived in a mud house in the countryside outside the small city. As a teenager, she worked as a maid and had been sexually abused by her employers.

In 1991, the 39-year-old woman beat her first husband to death, while drunk. When Victor Micael fell asleep, she killed him with an axe and quickly surrendered herself to the police. She spent 10 months in the local jail for the killing and once released violated the terms of her parole and sent to João Chaves Penitentiary. From there she escaped.

She killed again [ca 1992-5] in the Pernambuco city of Salgueiro, where she murdered Luis Batista with a shotgun. Her lover had killed his own father and was a drug trafficker. Maria Nazare claimed to have heard that he was going to kill her and throw her body into the river.

In 1995, Maria beat her boyfriend Luis Rodrigues to death. She did it, she said, because he had raped her sister. She served five years for this crime.

In 2002 she stabbed a woman in the chest, puncturing a lung, after being expelled from a bar. She was in a coma for a long time at Hospital Santa Catarina in Natal, but survived. In 2007, when freed again the victim’s brothers Adenilson Costa and Ednaldo Barbosa de Lima (no relation) attempted, unsuccessfully, to murder Maria Nazaré.

In 2014, a group of radio and TV students from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) made a documentary about her life.

~ Final murder ~

On Jul. 26, 2015, Maria killed Francisco García da Silva (“Tico”), her fifth partner, in the municipality of Ielmo Marinho, in Grande Natal, Brazil, having already attempted to murder him before.

According to her statement to police, Maria was drinking with her boyfriend, Francisco García da Silva, 59, and that 'she and the victim were drinking, when after Tico attempted to hit her with a knife, she waited and, using a piece of wood, struck him several times when Tico was sitting on the bed smoking a cigarette.

Maria Nazaré was convicted of this final murder on May 18, 2017 and was was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment in a high security prison. She died there on June 11, 2020.

[Robert St. Estephe; based on: “'Viúva negra' é condenada pelo assassinato do quinto companheiro no RN,” Rio Grande Do Norte, May 18, 2017; Nathallya Macedo, “Em depoimento, 'Viúva Negra' detalha morte de namorado a pauladas no RN Rio Grande Do Norte, Jul. 28, 2015]

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CHRONOLOGY

Maria Nazaré Félix de Lima; “Viúva Negra do Rio Grande do Norte”; 4 of a supposed 5 murders are included here:

Ca 1952 – Maria Nazaré born.

1991 – Victor Micael, first husband, murdered, beaten to death while drunk. (murder #1)

1990s – Luis Batista, murdered with shotgun; Pernambuco city of Salgueiro (murder #2)

1995 – Luis Rodrigues, paramour, murdered; beaten to death, since she alleged that the victim had raped her sister. (murder #3)

2000 – released from prison.

2002 – woman stabbed in lung, survived; she stabbed their sister of brothers Adenilson Costa and Ednaldo Barbosa de Lima (no relation) after being expelled from a bar.

Jul. 26, 2014 – Arrested.

2014 – a group of radio and TV students from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) made a documentary about her life: “Lenda De Ielmo Marinho:  Viúva Negra.”

Jul. 26, 2015 – Francisco García da Silva (“Tico”) murdered, 5th partner, in the municipality of Ielmo Marinho, in Grande Natal, Brazil. Previously attempted to murder him. (murder #4)

May 18, 2017 – convicted for the murder of Francisco García da Silva.

Jun. 11, 2020 – died (59).

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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.

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Social Justice in Cambodia: 1975-1979

 

យុត្តិធម៌​សង្គម – “Social Justice” in Khmer (Phonetic: youttethmr​ sangkom)

“Social Justice” has had many definitions. The term’s meaning is unknown until the specific meaning is elucidated by the speaker. This post demonstrates why this requirement for clear definition of the term’s use in context is important.

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~ Khieu Samphan – Head of State ~

"What I want to say today and what I want my countrymen to hear is that as an intellectual I have never wanted anything other than social justice for my country," Khieu Samphan told the court's seven judges on the final day of the appeal hearing.” [“Top Khmer Rouge leader tells court he fought for 'social justice',” AFP, Feb. 18, 2016]

Khieu Samphan (Khmer: ខៀវ សំផន; born 28 July 1931) is a Cambodian former communist politician and economist who was the chairman of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as Cambodia's head of state and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement, although Pol Pot remained the General Secretary (highest official) in the party. Prior to joining the Khmer Rouge, he was a member of Norodom Sihanouk's Sangkum government. After the 1967 leftist rebellion Sihanouk ordered the arrest of leftists including Samphan, who fled into hiding until the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975.

On 7 August 2014, along with other members of the regime, he was convicted and received a life sentence for crimes against humanity during the Cambodian genocide, and a further trial found him guilty of genocide in 2018. He is the last surviving senior member of the Khmer Rouge following the death of Nuon Chea in August 2019 and Kang Kek Iew in September 2020.  [Wiklipedia]

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~ Nuon Chea - chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge ~

EXCERPT: Nuon Chea, 92, the movement’s ideologue, was perhaps the truest believer in its attempt to turn Cambodia into an agrarian utopia, killing off its educated people and reorganizing the country into what amounted to a nationwide labor camp. Known as “Brother No. 2” to the late Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, Mr. Nuon Chea had command responsibility over a wave of murderous purges. He later assured an interviewer that “we only killed the bad people, not the good.” [Seth Mydans, “‘We Only Killed the Bad People’: 2 Khmer RougeLeaders, Forever Linked,” The New York Times, Nov. 16, 2018]

Nuon Chea (Khmer: នួន ជា; born Lao Kim Lorn; 7 July 1926 – 4 August 2019), also known as Long Bunruot (Khmer: ឡុង ប៊ុនរត្ន) or Rungloet Laodi (រុងឡឺត ឡាវឌី Thai: รุ่งเลิศ เหล่าดี), was a Cambodian communist politician and revolutionary who was the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge. He also briefly served as acting Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea. He was commonly known as "Brother Number Two" (Khmer: បងធំទី២), as he was second-in-command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, General Secretary of the Party, during the Cambodian genocide of 1975–1979. In 2014, Nuon Chea received a life sentence for crimes against humanity, alongside another top-tier Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan, and a further trial convicted him of genocide in 2018. He died while serving his sentences in 2019. [Wiklipedia]

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~ The 1975-1979 Genocide ~

The Cambodian genocide (Khmer: ហាយនភាពខ្មែរ or ការប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ខ្មែរ; French: Génocide cambodgien) was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot, who radically pushed Cambodia towards communism. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly a quarter of Cambodia's 1975 population (c. 7.8 million).

Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge had long been supported by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Mao Zedong; it is estimated that at least 90% of the foreign aid to Khmer Rouge came from China, with 1975 alone seeing at least US$1 billion in interest-free economic and military aid from China. After seizing power in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge wanted to turn the country into a socialist agrarian republic, founded on the policies of ultra-Maoism and influenced by the Cultural Revolution. Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge officials met with Mao in Beijing in June 1975, receiving approval and advice, while high-ranking CPC officials such as Zhang Chunqiao later visited Cambodia to offer help. To fulfill its goals, the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and forced Cambodians to relocate to labor camps in the countryside, where mass executions, forced labor, physical abuse, malnutrition, and disease were rampant.  In 1976, the Khmer Rouge changed the name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea.

By January 1979, 1.5 to 2 million people had died due to the Khmer Rouge's policies, including 200,000 - 300,000 Chinese Cambodians, 90,000 Muslims, and 20,000 Vietnamese Cambodians. 20,000 people passed through the Security Prison 21, one of the 196 prisons the Khmer Rouge operated, and only seven adults survived. The prisoners were taken to the Killing Fields, where they were executed (often with pickaxes, to save bullets) and buried in mass graves. Abduction and indoctrination of children was widespread, and many were persuaded or forced to commit atrocities. As of 2009, the Documentation Center of Cambodia has mapped 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3 million suspected victims of execution. Direct execution is believed to account for up to 60% of the genocide's death toll, with other victims succumbing to starvation, exhaustion, or disease.

The genocide triggered a second outflow of refugees, many of whom escaped to neighboring Vietnam and, to a lesser extent, Thailand. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia ended the genocide by defeating the Khmer Rouge in January 1979. On 2 January 2001, the Cambodian government established the Khmer Rouge Tribunal to try the members of the Khmer Rouge leadership responsible for the Cambodian genocide. Trials began on 17 February 2009. On 7 August 2014, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were convicted and received life sentences for crimes against humanity committed during the genocide. [Wikipedia]

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