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For many people the word Brazil conjures up of beaches, carnival and football. It looks like it’s now time to add murder to that list. According the most recent figures, Brazil has a homicide count of 59,080, the highest in the world and almost 20,000 more than its nearest rival (India). (1)
For a country that prides itself as the worlds first “racial democracy,” (2) further analysis of the above and other data reveals that more than half of these homicide victims were aged between 15 and 29, while over three quarters (77%) were Black. (3) A yet more sinister aspect to this situation is that, depending on the neighbourhood the police are responsible for between 30 percent and 60 percent of the killings. (4)
The police killings are carried out by so called death sqauds comprised of current and formers officers whether on or off duty who act with impunity (5), especially when they are “off duty.” (6) The stated rationale is that they target criminal gangs but even the United Nations have denounced the fact that these death squads have been given “carte blanche to systematically kill children.” (7) The advent of smart phones with video facility has also exposed the fact that these killings are less crime fighting than “social cleansing” (8)
So it was amazing that against this back drop of an “orgy of extra-judicial killing by Brazil’s military police,” (9) President Michel Temer signed a decree in February putting the military in charge of security in Rio de Janeiro. (10)
Not surprisingly, the usual pattern of abuse did not take long to kick in. This moved popular local politician and activist Sis. Marielle Franco to expose the ongoing brutality. On March 10th she tweeted: “What is happening now in Acari is absurd! And it has been happening forever! The 41st MP battalion is known as the Death Battalion. STOP abusing the population! STOP killing our youth!” “We are all Acari: Stop killing us! #LivesInTheFavelasMatter.” (11)
She was quoted in the O Dia newspaper a day later:
“We need to shout so that everyone knows what is happening in Acari at that moment. The 41st Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police is terrorizing and abusing the residents of Acari. This week two young men were killed and thrown into a sewage ditch. Today the police walked the streets threatening the residents. It has always happened and with the intervention it has gotten even worse.” (12)
Two days after this, the 38 year-old councilwoman and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes were shot deadwhen two unknown attackers fired an estimated nine shots into their car. It had all the hallmarks of a targeted assassination. The murder sparked protests across Brazil and the story spread globally. The Black Women of Brazil photographic and informational blog noted:
“But you will never convince me that Marielle just happened to speak out on police brutality and the repugnant treatment of the favela population and then, just days later, a car tailed her for several blocks, knew exactly where she was sitting, struck her four times in the head, didn’t steal anything and then disappeared into the night. Let’s get real. We know why people who witness violent acts by police often remain silent or conceal their identities. And I can’t say with any certainty who murdered Franco in such a heartless manner. But this was no random case of violence. Given the facts that we know there has been a plan to exterminate Brazil’s “undesirables”, and that many assassins are elements within the ranks of those who are supposed to be protecting us, what conclusion would you come to? Rest in Peace and Power Marielle Franco. We will all miss you!” (13)
Clearly, someone regarded Sis. Marielle as a threat even she was only she was one of only five black women elected to political office out of 460 thousand candidates in the 2016 elections. (14)
Perhaps Brazil’s establishment is threatened by the fact that, since the 2010 census, at 53% Afrikans in Brazil are officially the majority population in the country. (15) However, this occurrence is not as straightforward as as it might appear. It has long been argued that Afrikans in Brazil have been the majority for some time (16) but the sheer number of racial classifications – a dizzying 136 at its height (17) meant that the group was less consolidated. In comparative terms, the 106 million Afrikan Brazilians makes them is the world’s largest black population outside Africa and the second largest after Nigeria. (18)
It has been suggested by the likes of Brazil’s minister for racial equality, Elio Ferreira de Araujo, that the increased self-identification is indicative of growing pride among the country’s black and indigenous communities. (19) The more cynical might also factor in the establishment of affirmative action legislation in 2001 designed to help Afrikans but has become mired in new racial classification controversies. (20)
Nevertheless, a government would implement an affirmative action unless there was agitation and a demand to do so, so the pride argument may have some currency. Similarly, the growing campaigns for land rights for communities formed by quilombolas. Although these land rights are guaranteed by Brazil’s constitution, only an estimated 5.8 percent of the 214,000 families living in quilombo communities have received them. (21)
But ominously, like the battles against the militarised police and death squads, the fight for land is likely to be an arduous one. One indication of this is the recent murder in Bahia of 36-year old quilombola community leader Flávio “Binho” Gabriel Pacífico, cited as the ”latest in string of assassinations most likely connected to land rights.” (22)
(1) Metrocosm.com (12/09/19) Brazil has nearly 60,000 murders a year — here’s a map to put that number in perspective. http://metrocosm.com/homicides-brazil-vs-world/
(2) Rebecca Pattillo (2013) Combating the Myth of Racial Democracy in Brazil.http://www.indiana.edu/~psource/PDF/Archive%20Articles/Fall2013/2013%20-%20Fall%20-%204%20-%20Pattillo,%20Rebecca.pdf
(3) telesur (13/10/15) UN Body Accuses Brazil’s Military Police of Killing Kids to ‘Clean Streets’ for Olympics, World Cup’. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/apr/04/preventingtheriseofamessi. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/message-to-grassroots/#doc-tabs-full
(4) Evan Williams (14/05/09) Death to undesirables: Brazil’s murder capital. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/death-to-undesirables-brazils-murder-capital-1685214.html
(5) telesur. Op cit.
(6) Williams. Op cit.
(7) telesur. Op cit.
(8) Daily Mail (03/05/14) Brazil police accused of ‘cleansing’ favelas before World Cup football carnival rolls into town. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619722/Brazil-police-accused-cleansing-favelas-World-Cup-football-carnival-rolls-town.html#ixzz5AAF0TuUd
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619722/Brazil-police-accused-cleansing-favelas-World-Cup-football-carnival-rolls-town.html#ixzz59vF5RCvn
(9) Daily Mail. Op cit.l
(10) Dom Phillips (16/02/18) Brazilian army to take control of security in Rio as violence rises. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/16/brazilian-army-rio-de-janeiro-michel-temer
(11) Flávia Marreiro (16/03/18) Marielle Franco, councilor of the PSOL party, is murdered in downtown Rio after an event with black activists. https://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2018/03/16/rio-councilwoman-marielle-franco-assassinated-with-four-shots-to-the-head-in-execution-style-murder-assailants-also-killed-the-driver-of-the-vehicle/
(12) Ibid
(13) Black Women of Brazil (16/03/18) Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco assassinated with four shots to the head; in execution style murder, assailants also killed the driver of the vehicle. https://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2018/03/16/rio-councilwoman-marielle-franco-assassinated-with-four-shots-to-the-head-in-execution-style-murder-assailants-also-killed-the-driver-of-the-vehicle/
(14) Nicole Karlis (22/02/18) Number of American hate groups increased in 2017: Watchdog. https://www.salon.com/2018/02/22/number-of-american-hate-groups-increased-in-2017-watchdog/
(15) Dom Phillips (17/11/11) Brazil census shows African-Brazilians in the majority for the first time.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/17/brazil-census-african-brazilians-majority
(16) Minority Rights Group International (19/06/15) World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples: Brazil – Afro-Brazilians.http://minorityrights.org/minorities/afro-brazilians/
(17) Cleuci De Oliveira (05/04/2017) Brazil’s New Problem With Blackness
As the proudly mixed-race country grapples with its legacy of slavery, affirmative-action race tribunals are measuring skull shape and nose width to determine who counts as disadvantaged. http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/05/brazils-new-problem-with-blackness-affirmative-action/
(18) Vanessa Barbara (23/03/15) In Denial Over Racism in Brazil. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/opinion/vanessa-barbara-in-denial-over-racism-in-brazil.html
(19) Phillips 17/11/11.
(20) De Oliveira Op cit.
(21) Barbara Op cit.
(22) Black Women of Brazil (03/10/17) Another quilombola community leader murdered in Bahia: 36-year old Binho latest in string of assassinations most likely connected to land rights. https://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2017/10/03/another-quilombola-community-leader-murdered-in-bahia-36-year-old-flavio-gabriel-pacifico-is-latest-in-string-of-assassinations-most-likely-connected-to-struggle-over-land-rights/
we ask the question:
Brazil: Why was Marielle Franco murdered?
1) What is a “racial democracy”?
2) Is the pretence of the police just targeting criminals now over?
3) Does Brazil need more militarised police?
4) Has the Afrikan population in Brazil really increased or is it a matter of changing self-identification?
5) Is there a growing Afrikan Pride movement in Brazil?
6) If so, is the state fighting back against it?
Our very special guest:
Sis. Tamiris Pereira Rizzo: she is a lecturer on Public Health at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). She is member of the Black and feminist movement militant at CSP-Conlutas (Popular and Labour Union -National Struggles Coordination). Sista Tamiris began her activism at a young age as a student. In 2012 elections she stood as a candidate for councilor for the PSTU in Santos. She was the organiser of the 2013 and 2014 Marches Against Black People’s Genocide.