Violence in Brazil
An article by Gustavo Frederico
An elementary school teacher in Rio de Janeiro, a friend of
mine, described once how he and the students had to duck under the tables,
caught in the crossfire. In December of 2013 at a penitentiary in Maranhão, three
men were decapitated in a riot. Allegedly, leader inmates would extort others
to have sex with their wives during visits and the three turned down the
proposal. Because of the riot, the Government “occupied” the overcrowded
prison. In retaliation to that, inmates ordered from within the prison a wave
of violence in São Luís, with four buses burned and police stations attacked.
On the 14th of July of 2013, Amarildo Dias de Souza, a father-of-six
construction worker, was taken by police for questioning during Operation Armed
Peace, a crackdown against the poor (or drug traffickers, depending on the
version) in Rocinha, the largest slum of Rio de Janeiro. Amarildo was tortured
for 40 minutes by four police officers, with plastic bags and drowning. The Justice
system today charges 25 police officers with involvement in his death. The
operation was part of the so-called Pacifying Police Units, or UPPs, new units
of the police in that city that occupy slums with heavy weapons to enforce
“peace”. These are only a few stories of many that I could mention.
Violence is part of everyone’s everyday life in Brazil, even
though certain groups are disproportionally more affected. For instance,
homicide rates of blacks is twice as high as that of whites. Two well-known
movies show how violence is commonplace for all: “City of God” and “Elite
Squad: The Enemy Within”. A poll by the IPEA Institute in 2010 found that 79%
of the population is very much afraid of being assassinated. Only one in ten is not afraid of being
assassinated. The homicide rate was 27.1 per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2011,
with 106,603 homicides. While there was a noticeable decrease in the national
rate around 2005, it still oscillated in recent years, and the total number of
deaths is still very high. The official numbers recorded from 1980 to 2011 is
of 2,347,082 violent deaths in Brazil. The rate in Canada in 2012 was 1.56 per
100 thousand inhabitants, the lowest since 1966. In the State of Alagoas, the
homicide rate for young black individuals in 2011 was 201.2 per 100 thousand
inhabitants. That is twice higher the homicide rate of Honduras, which ranks country number one in violence in the world.
The “Map of Violence 2013” published by the Sangari
Institute compares some numbers taking the “Global Burden of Armed Violence”
report of the Geneva Declaration Secretariat. In the top 12 armed conflicts in
the world from 2004 to 2007 - including Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Colombia,
Congo, etc - there were officially 169,574 direct deaths. During the same
period, Brazil officially recorded 206,005. In fact, that number is closer to
the total official number of direct deaths of the top 62 armed conflicts in the
world combined in the period: 208,349.
Brazil is a country of contrasts. A general notion abroad is
that the economy is getting better after president Lula came to power in 2003. The most recent census, however, indicate that around 11 million inhabitants suffer from hunger. The prison population grew 400% in the previous 20 years, being the 4th largest in the world today with 574,000 inmates. Even being the sixth largest economy in the world today, the country
ranks very low worldwide in income distribution. While poverty and income
inequality have decreased in the previous decade, with 35 million people out of
extreme poverty, the rates of violence did not show similar decline in the
period. From 2000 to 2009, the national homicide rate has stayed relatively stable around
26 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants per year.
The Catholic National Conference of Bishops of Brazil promotes
yearly the “Fraternity Campaigns” during the Lent season with different themes.
Violence was the theme of 2009, 1983 and 1973. In 2004 and 2005, there was a national
disarmament campaign involving different religious organizations, NGOs and the
Government. More than 220 churches were collection points of firearms. With
that, however, we cannot say that non-violence is a noticeable characteristic
of Christian institutions in Brazil. Sadly, many Christian politicians and
practitioners often profess troublesome discourses that are incompatible with a
message of non-violence.
The Mennonite Central Committee had an office in Brazil for
44 years. It was closed in 2012. Most of the work focused on rural programs
(water access, food security projects and health programs), while the latter
years had local programs with issues of family violence and peace education in
the city of Recife.
I left Brazil in 1998 and
violence was one important issue for the decision. I grew up in a Baptist
church, but I never heard of Martin Luther King Jr. In Canada, I got to know
part of the rich history of non-violence of Anabaptists. Christian Peacemaker
Teams, for example, has a beautiful history of action in zones of conflict, an
emphasis that deserves our continued support. Ronald J. Sider’s speech at the
Mennonite World Conference of 1984, which led to the formation of CPT, said
that “we need to reject the ways we have misunderstood or weakened Jesus' call
to be peacemakers.” He then made a challenging appeal for North American and
European Anabaptists to engage actively in direct nonviolent action, especially
in zones of conflict. Since then, CPT continues to send teams to zones of
conflict. It would be nice if the history of Anabaptist practices of
non-violence were available in Portuguese. It would be nice if Canadian and
Brazilian youth, perhaps facilitated by technology, could connect and think
about what it means to be peacemakers in practice in their contexts. And it
would be nice if the world kept in mind during this year of Soccer World Cup
that Brazilians can laugh and cry.
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