Brazil, all the damage caused by Bolsonaro’s racism, the appeal of an exiled lawyer: “Suppress the military police”

ROME (DIRE Agency) – Italy, Europe and the United Nations must press for the abolition of the military police in Brazil, responsible, in the years of Jair Bolsonaro, for even more murders and abuses. Thus speaks the lawyer and poet Ricardo Rao, a life dedicated to defending the rights of native communities. The occasion of the appeal is the fiftieth anniversary of the Catholic federation of Focsiv volunteering, celebrated in Rome, in the premises of the fluvial industries. Rao, an official of Funai, the national agency for the protection of native communities, was forced to leave his country in 2019 by death threats received from police officers. From Focsivin Rome, he received the award “human rights defender 2022“.

The base of racial hatred had elected Bolsonaro. The first question he was asked was about the prospects that could open with the entry into office of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who on October 2 was elected to head the state, surpassing Bolsonaro, the president, by about one percentage point. outgoing. “The situation will improve, but we don’t know how much, because the damage done in recent years has been very serious”, says Rao. “Bolsonaro was elected on the basis of racial hatred, he destroyed Funai and now it is difficult to understand how what has been done can be remedied”. According to the lawyer, even today, in the months leading up to the inauguration of Lula’s presidency scheduled for January, “Brazil is not safe”. “Many friends told me too, warning me not to come back now,” Rao points out.

The “thank you” to civil society “. Convinced that, however, the commitment to rights must be continued and strengthened. “In this regard, I say thanks to civil society and the NGOs of Italy” continues the lawyer: “They have shown a moving commitment to the oppressed and weaker classes in Brazil; now they must move forward, pressing on the local government to abolish the police. military”. A body, this one, established in 1968. And which Rao accuses: “In his interventions he has always been discriminatory since birth; it affects the weak, the poor, the natives, causing thousands of victims, and with Bolsonaro the situation has worsened”.

* Vincenzo Giardina, DIRE Agency