Gaucho journalist who grew up in Rio Tim Lopes died in 2002, aged 51, murdered by drug traffickers after being kidnapped in the community of Vila Cruzeiro. With a microcamera, he investigated the sexual exploitation of minors at funk dances in this region of Rio.
Before, for “Fantástico”, he had recorded the activity of a drug fair in the West Zone of Rio, where “vapors” sold cocaine and marijuana in broad daylight, shouting their offers.
Tim came from a three-decade career in “true journalism” in print media. For JB, O Dia and the alternative O Repórter he reported in first person, in which he was confused with the protagonists of his texts. He was a worker on the Rio subway and later a laborer on the Red Line construction site; and, even before the Candelária massacre, he slept with kids on the street and accompanied them in petty thefts.
Tim was still an early amateur runner, having started at the age of 28 and competing in at least five marathons. In Rio, he participated in a running group, Expresso das 6, and even became a personal trainer for a fellow journalist.
In the 2013 documentary “Stories of Archangel”, about him, Bruno Quintella, Tim’s son, also exposes this facet. “He always struggled with the scales and may have started running precisely to make his first report as a marathon runner,” Bruno told the column.
Tim wrote at least two articles in the first person as a marathon runner, and in the second, for the weekly Placar, in 1984, he explains his reasons:
“I started to lose weight, I couldn’t bear to keep drinking beer and eating plenty of food, which I love.” In the end, he reinforces the point: “I went to celebrate with friends and family at Fiorentina. Three kilos lighter, I made a wonderful Osvaldo Aranha steak with about eight beers – or was it nine? I don’t know, that’s why I run”.
Bruno, who is also an amateur runner, and who started the activity after his father’s death, told the column that he remembers, upon waking up, seeing Tim “dripping” when he returned from his morning runs. “He once told me he had done a 10-mile workout.”
Tim had a stint at the Rio branch of this Sheet and by the sports magazine Placar, quite combative in those 1980s, where it mainly covered football. He wrote, with colleagues, the report on the rumored “Case Leandro”, when the former Flamengo right-back decided to leave the Brazilian team that would go to the Mexico Cup in 1986, in solidarity with his colleague Renato Gaúcho.
A journalist who started in photojournalism with Tim at Placar, Nilton Claudino da Silva, almost suffers the macabre fate of his colleague. Along with a reporter and a driver from the O Dia editorial team, Claudino was tortured when investigating a report about the domination of the Batan community by militiamen. The team had rented a house to demonstrate what they intended to describe. The episode, extremely violent, and which left consequences for the trio, reached the cinema in “Tropa de Elite”.
If alive, Tim would be 75 years old this Tuesday (18). The documentary “Stories of Arcanjo” is available on Globoplay until November 30th.
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