Abílio dos Santos Diniz

Abílio dos Santos Diniz (born December 28, 1936, in São Paulo) is chairman and former owner of the Brazilian retail chain Companhia Brasileira de Distribuiçao, and victim of a famous kidnapping. Forbes ranked Diniz as the 605th wealthiest person in the world in 2006, with a net worth of USD 2.0 billion. [1] Abílio Diniz is the father of former Formula One driver Pedro Diniz, whose career was largely funded by his father's personal wealth and sponsorship connections. Abílio also competed as a racecar driver in his youth and won 1970 Mil Milhas Brasil with his brother, Alcides. Diniz is also the CEO of Pão de Açúcar Group.

Business

Diniz's family founded the company Pão de Açúcar, which grew into a major retailer, Companhia Brasileira de Distribuiçao. In 2002, Diniz sold a large stake to the French company Casino for an estimated US 860 million and stepped down as CEO, but he remains as company chairman.

Kidnapping

Main article: Kidnapping of Abílio dos Santos Diniz

In December 1989, Diniz was the victim of a sensational political kidnapping, followed by a police rescue. He was confined for six days in a small space under a house, with a duct leading to the kitchen fan as his only source of oxygen.

The kidnapping took place in the morning of the Brazilian presidential elections in Brazil in 1989.

The candidates were Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, founding member of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT – Partido dos Trabalhadores), and Fernando Collor de Mello, the right wing party candidate running for a newly formed National Republican Party (PRN).

The kidnappers called themselves members of a left-wing group. Collor was backed by the richest man in Alagoas, senator João Lyra, who reportedly gave about $16 million to help elect Collor.

The kidnapping is recognized as an act of sabotage of the elections, having been executed on election day and associating the act to the political left wing. As there was a prohibition of any political party of taking the communication midia, television, radio or newspapers, on the days prior to election day, Lula's party had no opportunity to clarify or rebuke the accusations that their party (PT) was involved in the terrorist act.

As soon as the news of the kidnapping started been aired, the pols indicated a steady fall on the votes for Lula. Fernando Collor de Mello won the elections and would later resign as his trial for corruption was about to begin, in a failed attempt to prevent his impeachment by the Brazilian Senate.

Among the kidnappers were Canadians David Spencer, a student at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and Christine Lamont, also a student at Simon Fraser University.

Lamont and Spencer denied any participation in the kidnapping but their participation was proved when a secret weapons cache in Managua exploded (among the material exposed by the explosion were documents that linked both Lamont and Spencer to the Diniz kidnapping). Faced with these revelations, Lamont admitted that they had been involved in the kidnapping.

Lamont and Spencer were sentenced to 28 years in prison for their involvement, but were kept in private cells, away from the mass of the prison population. The Canadian press and public started a major movement to secure their release, straining relations between Brazil and Canada. However, two Canadian investigative journalists, Isabel Vincent of the Globe and Mail and Caroline Mallan of the Toronto Star, wrote books concluding that Lamont and Spencer were likely guilty, and they were being treated well by Brazilian authorities. Lamont confessed to involvement in the kidnapping, which was meant to raise money for Sandinista guerrillas, and the two were released and deported to Canada in 1996.

External links

• Profile at Forbes
• 1996 article by Isabel Vincent (the second half of the article discusses the kidnapping and Canadian press coverage)

Further reading

• Isabel Vincent, See no evil. Reed Books Canada, 1996.
• Caroline Mallan, Wrong time, wrong place? Key Porter Books, 1996.