Note from BW of Brazil: A racial insult and a physical attack of a woman. In reality, both happen in Brazil everyday. In this case, a black woman running for the office of governor in one the country’s most important states. What provoked this assault is a very important issue that more and more people are seeing with vital importance: the de-militarization of Brazil’s Military Police. Police in Brazil are some of the most lethal in the world with some communities being occupied by police units fully equipped as if they were at war. The shocking annual rate of murders in Brazil, both in general and that of murders specifically committed by the police, are in fact numbers of a country at war. Or maybe a war on its citizens. So who is it that would take offense to such a policy? Hmmm…I wonder….
Candidate for governor of the state of Minas Gerais, Cleide Donária is attacked for defending demilitarization and is a victim of racism
by Thiago de Araújo
A candidate for governor of Minas Gerais, Cleide Donária (PCO), 43, was the victim of aggression and racism last September 14, in the region of Venda Nova in the capital of Belo Horizonte. The attack was from a still unidentified man, who disagreed with some of the candidate’s proposals.
According to the newspaper O Estado de Minas, Cleide was heading towards the Unidade de Pronto Atendimento (UPA or Emergency Unit) of Venda Nova, where she would meet with her campaign partners. She was eventually approached in the median of a boulevard and took a punch in the stomach. But the worse was to follow.
“Where’s your partidinho de m (merda…little shitty party)…to dissolve the PM (Military Police)?” screamed the aggressor. “Dissolve the PM now you whore. You black slut,” amended the man, who still spit on Cleide and then fled. According to the candidate, the attacker also put a hand on his waist, showing that he was armed.
She recorded a boletim de ocorrência (police report) at the 9th Integrated Public Security Area and made a request that the Civil Police seek identification of the perpetrator with cameras of the Move stations near the location where she was attacked. So far this has not happened. The day after the incident, she thought about giving up her candidacy, but was dissuaded from the idea by the party.
“The campaign had been quiet, with productive debates in schools and universities, always with respect to the different proposals. I don’t know if anyone felt threatened by our ideas, but in a democracy it’s essential to deal with the thought of other parties,” she said the newspaper O Estado de Minas.
In a statement issued by the PCO, the acronym again defended the demilitarization of Military Police as one of the major campaign proposals. “The only way to ensure real security for the working class can occur with the dissolution of the PM and the creation of popular militias to protect workers from attacks of the armed wing of the state,” wrote the party.
At the presidential level, some candidates like Luciana Genro (PSoL), Jorge Eduardo (PV) and Rui Pimenta (PCO) are also advocates of demilitarization of the police in Brazil, a very controversial topic, but that has been under discussion for some years in the National Congress.
Source: Brasil Post
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