Amnesty Launches International Campaign Against Brazil’s Police Violence

Postcards with photographs of the armored cars popularly referred to as caveirões (big skulls), used in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE), will be part of an international campaign that will be launched in February to denounce Brazilian police violence in Rio’s favelas (shantytowns).

This is one of the mobilization strategies led by Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations, such as Global Justice, the Network of Movements and Communities Opposed to Violence, and the Petrópolis Center for the Defense of Human Rights.

Global Justice researcher Marcelo Freixo says that debates and talks on police violence and public safety policies will also be organized in various Brazilian states.

In Freixo’s opinion, the black armored cars bearing the BOPE symbol – a skull embedded with knives – "show what their purpose is, indiscriminate killing."

He says that expressions like "Get out of the way" and "I’m here for your soul," said to be used by members of the military police elite forces riding in the "caveirões" during their raids, are still common practices "to terrorize and intimidate" the communities.

According to Márcio Jerônimo, a resident of the Manguinhos shantytown and member of the Network of Movements and Communities Opposed to Violence, the campaign plans to denounce social policies in the shantytowns, which, in his view, "have projects without signs of results."

Lieutenant-coronel Aristeu Tavares, public relations officer of the Rio military police, claims that the BOPE armored cars do not behave in a violent manner in the communities.

Agência Brasil

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil Declares Delaware a Tax Haven. Nevada and Wyoming Might Be Next

On June 23, 2008, Brazil’s Congress published Law 11,727/2008, which, effective as of January ...

The Alley’s Vampire

Pretty thing are you, I thought cynically, coveting the gorgeous young fascist and his ...

Despite Evidence Brazil’s Speaker Resigns Protesting Innocence

Brazilian Deputy Severino Cavalcanti, who was Brazil’s Speaker of the House (president of the ...

Over 30% of Brazilians Are Sexually Active Before Turning 15

The Brazilian AIDS Treatment Program was singled out for praise in the United Nations ...

25 per 100,000: Brazil’s Per-Capita Homicide Rate Is Three Times the World Average

Earlier this year, in September, the United Nations released a report on Brazilian arbitrary, ...

Brazil Creates Sovereign Wealth Fund Against Congress’s Wishes

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, has signed a law creating ...

Brazilian Amazon NGOs Demand Conservation Units

The Amazon Work Group (GTA) – a network consisting of more than 600 non-governmental ...

Brazilian presidential candidates Lula and Geraldo Alckmin

Lula’s Electoral Stumble Gives Brazilian Politics New Lease on Life

The first day of October 2006 will remain in Brazil’s political memory for a ...

Government’s Conference on Indians Has No Legitimacy, Say Brazilian Indians

The 550 indigenous leaders gathered in the 2006 Acampamento Terra Livre (Free Land Camp) ...

Friends Shelve Corruption Charges Against Brazilian Senate President

Protected by a network of old political friends Brazilian Senate president José Sarney managed ...