The murder of a soccer player and kidnapping of the mother of another have shown that not even Brazil's pride and joy - soccer - is immune from the violent crime that sweeps over cities.
"Kidnappers, you bastards, you'll pay for that," wrote one angry soccer fan on the internet inreaction to the kidnapping of the mother of Santos club star Robinho - a rising star who has been compared with Pele.
Widespread poverty and extravagant wealth, flourishing drugs and illegal arms trade, and corrupt police all help to fuel crime in Latin America's largest country.
A day before Marina de Souza's abduction, Claudinei Resende, 26, who until May played for Swedish club Helsingborg, was shot in a nightclub in the southern city of Belo Horizonte.
