BASED ON THE PODCAST "ABANDONED: THE WOMAN IN THE DECAYING HOUSE"
BY CHICO FELITTI
THE FOLLOWING AUDIO RECORDINGS ARE AUTHENTIC,
RECORDED BY CHICO FELITTI FOR "ABANDONED: THE WOMAN IN THE DECAYING HOUSE" PODCAST
THE ASSOCIATED SCENES ARE RECONSTRUCTIONS BASED
ON THE PARTICIPANTS' TESTIMONIES AND DOCUMENTS OF THE CASE
THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS DOCUMENTARY
IS TO DEPICT THE FACTS ABOUT THIS CASE OF SIGNIFICANT PUBLIC INTEREST
WE CONDEMN ANY ACT OF AGGRESSION OR PERSECUTION IN ANY FORM
AGAINST PEOPLE DEPICTED HERE
WARNING: THIS DOCUMENTARY CONTAINS DEPICTIONS
OF PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE AND DISCRIMINATORY ATTACKS
THAT MAY TRIGGER SOME PEOPLE
[in Portuguese] This was going to be a federal criminal case
against Renê and Margarida Bonetti.
[Lou, in English] With this case, what we see is
all of the different vulnerabilities coming together.
Immigration status, race, sex, age,
isolation, illiteracy, poverty.
[Silvja] It was very upsetting that Margo escaped to Brazil.
She was the main abuser.
[in Portuguese] What on Earth was that woman even thinking?
If she had a problem with the American justice system,
she wouldn't get through immigration, she'd stay.
[background horns]
[Lou, in English] How do we change these laws
so that we could address situations
like what Hilda had been in at the hands of the Bonettis?
Mr. Bonetti thought that it's going to be his word versus her word,
and no one would ever believe her over him.
BONETTI: BRAZILIAN ENGINEER 51 YEARS OLD
[Don, in English] Here he is: "I am an engineer. I have a PhD.
I'm a wealthy businessman.
Who is Hilda? Does she know her date of birth?
She doesn't know where she's from. She's a maid.
I mean, she's beneath us. Why would you believe her over me?".
ABANDONED: THE WOMAN IN THE DECAYING HOUSE
-[background talking] -[tense music]
[birds chirping]
[Don, in English] Hilda actually raised Margo Bonetti.
She was the maid of Margo Bonetti's parents,
and so she had raised her since she was about nine years old.
[Hilda, in Portuguese] I used to live with her mother and Mr. Geraldo,
for years and years.
I lived with them over in São Paulo.
Ms. Lourdes and I used to get along well.
But she was really hotheaded, you know?
Sometimes, she sounded like thunder.
Or like a bad storm.
And I would get away.
I didn't even want to know about her shrieking that cut the air.
-[birds chirping] -[background talking]
[Hilda] One thing Ms. Margo really liked was rice with potatoes.
So, I used to make her a delicious rice dish,
with potatoes and all that.
We got along very well at first.
[Margarida, on a recording] In my eyes,
she was almost like a big child, you know? Truly.
And then I grew up and everything,
but it was my wish to always have her with me wherever I was.
[Chico Felitti] Margarida says she met Hilda when she was a child
and from that moment on, they were best friends.
In a certain point, Margarida even states
that she received Hilda as a gift from her family.
[soft tense music] ♪
[Rosa] Hilda was hired to be the maid and she lived there, in the house.
She was a simple person and her family was very poor, you know?
So she was just a simple maid.
[Marcio] In Brazil, there was a term for domestic servants, the word "criada".
"Criada" is basically a maid who is raised,
they are adopted, and they grows up alongside the family.
Margarida's home was a house built after the heyday of the coffee.
A period when slavery was rampant.
Incidentally, we all saw what happened in Washington.
She brought along the tradition of slave culture into the present day.
♪
[Don, in English] I find out that Hilda was born in the interior of Brazil,
a very poor family,
and she was basically given away.
They couldn't afford to...
You know, feed her, and clothe her, and things like that.
♪ [soft tense music ends]
[Hilda, in Portuguese] Life, for me, was always bitter, know what I mean?
Always lonely,
because I never had a mom, I never had a dad, I never had...
Everyone took advantage of me in one way or another, you know?
[soft music] ♪
[Angela, in Spanish] First of all, in Brazil,
they didn't teach her anything.
She stayed at the exact same level as when she originally left her village.
They had beaten her to the point that they buried her whole personality,
her whole way of being!
Her character... Do you understand?
And over here, it was worse!
♪
[Dede, in English] I did receive a call from the FBI.
They asked me if I knew who Hilda was and had I examined her.
I said yes for both of those questions and basically explained to them
that it was a clear case of abuse,
whether it was emotional or physical.
Definitely this woman, the wife, had been very hard on Hilda.
-[background scream] -[tense music]
[buzz]
♪
[Don] We knocked on the door and gathered all of Hilda's materials.
Everything's really well kept.
But where she lived, it was dirty, no windows, dark.
I would always ask: "What do we need to prove this case?".
[Lou] The problem was, of course, is that even though she was enslaved,
we weren't able to charge it as a slavery case,
because the laws were so old.
We were in a situation at that time
where the United States Supreme Court had said:
"Psychological coercion is not enough".
This idea that you had to show physical force.
♪
And so, we had to prosecute them under the statute
that makes it illegal to harbor an immigrant.
They weren't harboring an immigrant. They were enslaving somebody.
[typing sound]
[David] In this case, the Bonettis were both indicted.
So, when this indictment came down,
I think Margarida was able to get out
of facing any kind of criminal penalties by leaving the country.
[airplane engine roaring]
[Chico Felitti, in Portuguese] As soon as Margarida Bonetti was indicted,
she said she had to return to Brazil because she had a sick relative.
[Margarida, on a recording] I'll tell you something.
I wasn't on the run, I was looking after my mother over here,
and after that, my own health problems were preventing me from traveling!
I couldn't risk worsening my health.
How could I testify to something when I couldn't even stand upright?
I couldn't even stand up! I was bleeding! A lot!
♪
[Don, in English] Margo fled the country, and we never saw her again.
[Wanja, in Portuguese] From the very first moment
the FBI got in contact with us,
there was an open channel of communication,
so they kept us informed about everything regarding that.
About the case and Margarida's sudden escape as well.
I think they considered her, at the time, as a fugitive of the U.S. Justice System
who was taking refuge in her native country, Brazil.
[Chico Felitti] Margarida was in Brazil, and she had left her husband behind
to answer for something they were both being accused of.
[birds chirping in the distance]
[David, in English] Once a person is subject to an indictment
and comes before a court, if the Justice Department thinks
that there's a possibility that they may try to flee,
there are ways that they can try to use technology
to ensure that they know the location of the individual.
So, in many cases,
I think this may have happened in Renê Bonetti's case,
you can put an ankle bracelet on
that broadcasts a signal that indicates where they are.
I saw Renê one more time, and he had an ankle bracelet.
Justice Department was afraid that he may flee the country like Margo.
And as I said, "they never talked to us before, always ignored us".
But that one time, when we saw Renê,
he started to talk with us, he was smiling.
He was so friendly, like another person!
And it was, it was bizarre.
SEARCH: INTERVIEW WITH RENÊ BONETTI
RENÊ BONETTI SPEAKS EXCLUSIVELY TO RECORD TV STATION
[Renê, in Portuguese] She was paid normally.
It was all sent over to Brazil because she couldn't be paid here.
If she needed money for anything, I gave it to her.
If she needed a dentist, I took her.
If she needed clothes, we paid for them, we bought them.
She also ate what we ate.
MARGARIDA'S EX-HUSBAND BREAKS THE SILENCE
[Don, in English] Just a short time before the trial is to start,
Renê Bonetti, through his attorney,
makes an attempt to try to make this all go away,
and he agrees that he would pay Hilda $4,000 for 20 years of work.
That's what he offered us.
[Renê, in Portuguese] My father-in-law handled her money, you know?
So, when she said: "Give me my money,"
I wrote down a check and sent it over to her lawyer.
Then she sent it back.
"That sum is too small. We want a million dollars". [laughs]
[in English] This guy does not understand what's happening here.
[heart monitor beeping]
[dramatic music] ♪
[Hilda, in Portuguese] I still didn't know how I would live
or where I was going to end up,
but I was tired of running around like a gypsy all over the world, you know?
And I thought to myself: "And now? Now what?
How am I going to live? I have nowhere to stay.
Where am I going to move to? And how am I going to eat?
Where am I...".
No, there were so many things. "Where am I going to stay?".
[Dede, in English] We had a parish called "Our Lady of Americas",
a predominantly Latino community, I think the priest was bilingual,
and we made phone calls, and they had an apartment for her
that we could get Hilda to go "ASAP" to there,
to hide from the family.
[Angela, in Spanish] Sister Manuela had a place for Hilda to stay.
And so, we took Hilda...
[stutters] ...well, to an apartment near Sister Manuela's church.
That way, Sister Manuela was nearby.
She stayed hidden away there until the trial.
[in English] I feared Hilda being approached by the Bonettis
during the time before the trial.
The risk was there.
She was well protected, but absolutely.
We all were under the impression
that we could suffer some kind of pressure.
RECEIVED ON 01-31-2000
THE BONETTI COUPLE'S TRIAL BEGAN LAST WEEK
-[background talking] -[camera shutters in the background]
[Hilda, in Portuguese] Depending on the place we were going to,
I had to duck down and cover myself with the lawyer's jacket.
I don't know, it was a circus, you know?
[Arthur, in English] Yeah, I was impressed by the size
of the formality of the building,
the fact that we were just part of a large, very large crowd.
The tension was there,
an expectation of what was going to be the outcome.
[Ruben] This was seen as a pretty big story
by Washington Post editors.
I've covered hundreds of cases,
both in federal and state court over the years,
and this, I can say, is one of the more memorable ones.
[tense music] ♪
[Don] During the trial,
I actually sit at the table with Steve Dettelbach and Mythili,
who were the two prosecuting attorneys.
Mr. Bonetti sits with his attorney at the other table.
The jury, they're over here listening to the case,
we've got our judge here, we have interpreters.
This is a pretty big deal.
[Arthur] The fact that they had put Mr. Bonetti by himself,
sitting on a chair here, and Hilda on the other side
in close proximity,
I thought it was essentially a very tense moment.
[Don] You know, this is a completely new environment for Hilda,
very intimidating.
You have Mr. Bonetti there staring at you.
You have, you know, these jurors who you don't know a judge.
She's never seen anything like this.
[in Portuguese] So, Renê, the boss, was sitting right there,
all strait laced and everything with an expression.
Good Lord, what an expression.
And his shameless wife, who should have been there the most
was in São Paulo.
-[tense music ends] -[sirens wailing in the distance]
Margarida was still in Brazil, but her address was unknown.
Since Margarida Bonetti left for Brazil, we haven't heard anything more from her
with the exception of the time she called me.
[tense music] ♪
[Wanja] Margarida Bonetti's line of argument,
was that I, as the Brazilian consular authority,
should testify in favor of Renê Bonetti, her husband,
against Hilda's claims,
explaining that the treatment she had been given for those 20 years
was simply normal and acceptable in Brazil,
and that this was merely a "culture shock".
AN ABSURD CASE! A FAMILY PERSON MAID
[Lou, in English] Whether here, in the United States,
in Brazil, in Greece, in Thailand,
defense attorneys are often going to make the exact same argument.
"This person was better off than they were back home",
or "She was a member of the family and we loved her".
♪
[Marcio, in Portuguese] When I arrived at the courtroom and the trial began,
we realized that Margarida wasn't there.
And we also noticed a certain nervousness from the judge
because she had probably only been informed
a mere moment before that Margarida was absent.
The only person who knew
she wasn't coming back from Brazil was Renê.
[Margarida, on a recording] I had the opportunity to tell him:
"I told you so.
I warned you, I asked you, I begged you, to make sure Hilda was legal
and you simply refused and she stayed illegally!
Now look at everything that happened!
If you had only done everything legally at the very least,
they wouldn't be able to say anything! Because she was legal!".
And he said: "Yeah...".
But you know he was really stupid, a real imbecile, ok? That man.
[in English] One of the elements in our crime was there was co-conspiracy
between Margo and Renê in this whole incident.
♪
[David] Conspiracy to harbor an illegal alien,
harboring an illegal alien for commercial advantage
or private financial gain, which caused serious bodily injury.
So, those were the three different crimes that he was charged with.
[indistinct voices]
[Renê, in Portuguese] So, she started fighting with Hilda almost every day.
There was one day that the two of them started scrapping.
So, Hilda ran out of the house and went to complain to a neighbor.
The neighbor offered her a job: "Bring your papers and I'll employ you".
When she found out she was undocumented, she went and called the police, the FBI,
and that's when the trouble started.
[Don, in English] Renê Bonetti's defense attorney
was very aggressive in cross-examining Hilda.
He's asking her questions that he knows she doesn't know the answer to, like:
"When was your date of birth? Where were you born, exactly?
What kind of visa did you have?".
Well, she doesn't know any of these questions.
[background talking]
[Don] Finally, the judge had it, and she said:
"All right, we're going to take a break.
We're going to dismiss the jury".
And they reiterated to Hilda on her own,
in front of us that, you know:
"If you lie, then you will be held in contempt,
there'll be perjury charges, and you could go to jail".
[tense sound] ♪
[in Portuguese] They started asking me and I'm not going to lie,
I have to tell the truth. I'm surrounded by police!
[Ruben, in English] The entire trial was quite dramatic.
I would say the highlights were the testimony of the victim, Hilda,
who described in heartbreaking detail
the abuse that she endured at the hands of the Bonettis.
[tense music] ♪
She's been psychologically abused, she's been physically abused.
[in Portuguese] So, she grabbed a handful of hair with both hands
and then pulled hard.
The hair in that spot ripped out of my scalp where she pulled it.
[Ruben, in English] I recall that there were a few moments, though,
where she had to gather herself to maintain her composure
as she was describing some of the worst abuse that she endured.
[Hilda, in Portuguese] Well, my boss,
he thought everything was all my fault,
everything that happened, that I was to blame for all of it,
that it was my fault.
Then, they came and took me to a little room way at the back.
It was a tiny little room.
[repeatedly] And I cried, and cried: "Now what?
If I'm in this little room, does that mean I'm going to prison?
My goodness! What will I do? What's going to happen?" And stuff.
You know when you're in such a state...
that you don't even know what's going on or what's going to happen?
[in English] There was a sense of expectation for the results.
In the air was the question: "Okay, what is going to happen now?".
♪
[Marcio, in Portuguese] I got the impression
that the prosecutors were giving Renê room to accuse his wife.
To get a lesser sentence this way.
But he never used that angle or even considered it.
He defended his wife to the very end.
[Renê, on a recording] Yes, she had a fight with Hilda, ok,
but apart from that, it was my fault.
I was the one who kept Hilda there. I should have sent her back to Brazil.
None of that was her fault.
[hammer blows]
[Arthur, in English] The judge addressed Bonetti again,
saying in that case, you would have to serve
the sentencing of your conviction, which is five to seven years in prison.
♪
His jail time was over what we expected.
Part of the reason was the judge said that he had perjured himself.
I mean, it was so obvious that he lied on the stand.
♪
[David] In addition to this criminal sentence,
there were also monetary penalties that were put on.
[Don] We came up with a calculation. It ended up being about 110,000.
That was the low end for Hilda, plus there were fines.
[Arthur] The judge called,
or made a sign to the sheriff, and to a policeman there.
They came in, and we saw him, like in, in many movies.
[stutters] I mean, he was handcuffed and walked out of there.
[handcuffs clicking]
[in Portuguese] Then afterwards, I saw that the man was handcuffed.
I said: "Whoa".
[door closes]
[sirens wailing]
♪ [tense music ends]
[David, in English] He was sentenced to six and a half years,
which seems like a very low amount of time
compared to the amount of time that she was forced to be in a prison,
but that was what she was subjected to
because there weren't actually crimes of forced labor.
It all had to do with illegal immigration.
[tense music] ♪
The Bonetti case happened right as we were setting up what we were calling
the "National Worker Exploitation Task Force".
[David] While we were working on the legislation,
we became aware of the Bonetti case
and the problems that had happened up in Gaithersburg.
[Lou] We were able to successfully argue to Congress
that we needed to update those old Civil War statutes,
that we needed to be able to capture psychological coercion.
We needed to be able to capture somebody not having their passport.
[Ruben] This case, the conviction of Renê Bonetti,
was an important impetus for the passage in Congress
of an anti-trafficking law.
The repercussions of this case extended far beyond
the conviction of Renê Bonetti.
[Clinton, on a recording] Today, I want to talk to you about
the most significant step we've ever taken
to secure the health and safety of women at home and around the world.
It's a new law I'm signing
called the "Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act".
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act that mandates the report
condemns trafficking as a modern form of slavery.
This report represents the resolve of the entire United States Government
to stop this appalling assault
on the dignity of men, women, and children.
-[buzz] -[tense music ends]
[in Portuguese] Everything that happened between me and her husband...
She should have been there!
She should have been arrested.
-[tense music] -[dogs barking in the distance]
[urban noise]
[Chico Felitti] After the trial, the American Justice System teamed up
with the Brazilian Justice.
There's a cooperation agreement.
So, the U.S. can say: "Hey, Brazil!
There's this person we want to try, and they're over there.
Can you guys do something about that?"
[typing sound]
[Chico Felitti] Knowing that Brazil doesn't extradite its citizens,
the FBI sent a letter to the Brazilian Justice System
requesting legal proof guaranteeing Margarida would be tried in Brazil
and that her assets would be frozen, including the house.
The São Paulo Civil Police went to the abandoned house
which is Margarida's last known address
and they claim to have knocked, but no one was there.
♪
[Chico Felitti] The police tried, but failed to find Margarida.
And with that, she's listed as a fugitive of the United States.
[in English] So, if Margarida Bonetti came back to the United States today,
then she would face arrest, trial, and she could go to jail
for the exact same crimes that Renê Bonetti was prosecuted for.
[sirens wailing in the distance]
[Margarida, in Portuguese] As for the trial
that took place there, was only against Renê, you know?
I was never mentioned.
[Chico Felitti] However, you were wanted and searched for.
-You were put on the FBI's wanted list. -[Margarida] No, no.
[Chico Felitti] Now I want to know why you came to Brazil
and never returned to answer for those charges in the United States.
[Margarida, on a recording] I'll tell you that!
I would answer your question,
but you just told me something that I never knew about.
So, you just said:
"You were wanted by the FBI, and you were on a list".
What list? Tell me.
[dogs barking in the distance]
[Chico Felitti] The mystery of the Abandoned House
never seems to end.
After the podcast's release,
I received a message from a man named Fábio.
He lives in Campinas, a city near São Paulo.
He told me Margarida Bonetti had lived in a place behind his house,
when he and his siblings were little.
This house is located at a humble neighborhood,
far from downtown.
And it was very different from where Margarida had lived before.
This has happened during the first decade of the 2000s.
I had never heard anything about her previously living in Campinas.
So, I went to meet Fábio to find out what else he could tell me.
CAMPINAS 67 MILES FROM SÃO PAULO
-[Fábio, on the phone] Hello? -Hello, Fábio?
-[Fábio] What's up, Chico? How are you? -I'm good, and you?
-[Fábio] I'm good. -I'm here in Campinas, in the town square.
-[Fábio] Awesome. Bye. -All right, bro. I'll see you soon.
So, why did you message me, Fábio?
Well, bro, I saw an article...
about "The Woman in the Decaying House".
And I saw "Chico Felitti", and thought: "Man, let's take a look".
And I started the infamous scrolling like you do on Instagram,
sometimes YouTube or whatever.
I thought it was interesting, I looked into the case and saw the person,
and thought: "Dude, damn, this person,
Margarida Bonetti, that they're talking about, it's Maria!
The person who lived behind my house".
It was a two-story house and there was a place at the back.
She lived in that little house at the back.
[birds chirping in the distance]
♪
[Fábio] The funny thing is, she lived for years completely disguised.
I mean, you could see that her clothes were all worn out.
Bro, it used to be hot out, like today, 85 degrees,
and she would be out in a sweater.
[Chico Felitti] So, the impression was that Margarida
was disguising herself as someone else?
[Fábio] Yeah, right.
She made herself look like a poor little lady.
And maybe the reason she was in that position,
was precisely because she was trying to hide.
It's probably the best place she could have hidden, you know?
Because it's pretty far from the city.
♪ [tense music ends]
It was really secretive, you know?
You'd look at it and think: "Wow, what's going on in there?".
And we kept looking at it from here, from the front,
looking back there at the house she was living in.
There were some neighbors here who used to see her walking on the streets.
So, she'd come from over there where that pole is,
and she'd come using her walking stick.
She had a big black bag and stuff.
And whatever she saw in the street, she'd pick up.
We would be standing around here.
We'd look at her and say: "Wow, what a strange lady".
[tense music] ♪
[Eduardo] Then she would go back inside, and she collected garbage in there.
The smell coming from that house was really strong.
That house was like a trash can.
Garbage in the bedroom, living room, kitchen, and the bathroom.
It was a real dump.
[crickets chirping in the distance]
[Eduardo] She seemed like she was hiding something, you know?
You could see it in her eyes when she looked at you.
It was almost like she was hiding something,
like a dark past or whatever, you know?
♪
[Chico Felitti] For years Margarida lived disguised as a victim in Campinas.
She was biding her time,
waiting for the statute of limitations to pass.
So, she returned to the decaying house after that period in the countryside,
because she knew she couldn't be tried for her crimes in Brazil anymore.
♪
There were rumors, comments about mistreatment.
I disregarded everything,
because Margarida would never do anything like that.
I don't remember any comments,
but I also don't think that people had no problem with it,
because she gets along with everyone, they all talk to her.
They visit her, she talks to everyone.
So I don't think they had a problem with anything about this story.
What crime could she have committed that was more serious...
so that people wouldn't minimize it?
[Margarida, on a recording] People created
this false personality, you know?
This Margarida you're talking about, that you're complaining about,
because you think I should say that this person is me.
That person isn't me! I'm not like that!
I'm peaceful and a good person.
I never did anything bad to that lady, I even liked her a great deal. Okay?
So, I was extremely surprised of how she could've been...
[pondering] ...how should I put it?
Convinced, influenced, and manipulated into doing the things that she did!
[soft music] ♪
[Hilda sighs]
[repeatedly] When you've been beaten so much.
With calmness you gain kindness, right?
And so I said:
"With patience, I got there in the end".
♪
This picture here, I painted it as if it were...
Like a beach house, you know?
And so, I had it in my head and I thought:
"I'm going to get home and I'm going to make this painting".
I did all of them just with my fingers.
Then I started doing the paintings, I liked that idea.
So, when I didn't have much to do and I was sad, abandoned and all that,
that's when I started painting these pictures.
♪
[Hilda] They asked me if I would rather go back to São Paulo
or if I would rather stay here.
I told them, I was direct.
I said: "If I have to go back to São Paulo, I would rather stay here".
[Lou, in English] Historically, we had some judges in the United States
that actually said that a threat of deportation
wasn't a threat for slavery,
because you were just being told that you'd get sent home.
And that meant that you'd be released from slavery.
You'd get out of the house where you were being abused,
and you get sent back to your home country.
Well, that assumes that you have something in your home country to go back to,
and Hilda dos Santos did not.
They had taken that from her decades before.
What was she going to do? Go be homeless in Brazil?
♪
[Don] Do I feel justice occurred?
[sighs] I can't say absolutely.
I mean, to me, for justice to really occur,
it would have been Margarida being in that courtroom too,
and her getting a guilty verdict also and her spending time in jail.
[Rosa, in Portuguese] As for Margarida, if she wanted to change her life,
she could have a very comfortable life.
She has the financial means to make changes to her life.
But she likes to live there in her world
with nature and freedom.
So, she loves that house the way it is.
So she's not going to change anything. She'll live there until she dies.
[Margarida, on a recording] This house belongs to me. Okay?
And I won't sell it to anyone for anything in the world.
Do you understand?
That was my father and my mother's wish.
And they knew that I am the only person in this family
who'll keep this house exactly the same as it is.
So, that is what I'll do.
♪ [soft music ends]
MARGARIDA BONETTI NEVER ANSWERED FOR THE CRIMES OF WHICH SHE WAS ACCUSED
IN BRAZIL, THE POLICE INVESTIGATION AGAINST HER WAS CLOSED IN 2005
AND THE CRIME FOR WHICH SHE WAS INVESTIGATED EXPIRED
AS OF THE CONCLUSION OF FILMING THIS DOCUMENTARY IN 2025
MARGARIDA IS LIVING IN RECLUSION IN THE DECAYING HOUSE
RENÊ BONETTI WAS RELEASED FROM PRISON IN 2005
AND HE CONTINUES TO LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES
AFTER THE TRIAL, HILDA ROSA DOS SANTOS
WAS GRANTED A VISA TO STAY IN THE UNITED STATES
HILDA DECIDED TO APPEAR AND SPEAK PUBLICLY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS DOCUMENTARY
THE COURAGE OF PEOPLE LIKE HER, WHO DENOUNCED THEIR EMPLOYERS,
LED TO THE REVISION OF THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES,
IMPACTING THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS OF IMMIGRANTS
YET, THIS TYPE OF CRIME IS STILL A REALITY IN THE WORLD
IN BRAZIL, BETWEEN 1995 AND 2023, MORE THAN 600,000 PEOPLE WERE RESCUED
FROM SLAVE-LIKE WORKING CONDITIONS AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
DIAL 100 TO REPORT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BRAZIL
MARGARIDA, RENÊ AND THEIR RELATIVES
DID NOT WANT TO TAKE PART IN THIS DOCUMENTARY
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[dramatic music ends] IN THIS DOCUMENTARY