{"id":14789,"date":"2014-05-08T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=14789"},"modified":"2015-12-23T23:01:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T02:01:48","slug":"just-another-silva-reflections-on-recent-upp-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=14789","title":{"rendered":"\u201cJust Another Silva?\u201d Reflections on Recent UPP Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, April 22, a young man was found dead inside a day care center in Pav\u00e3o-Pav\u00e3ozinho<\/a>, South Zone of Rio, allegedly\u00a0killed by local Pacifying Police Unit (UPP)<\/a> officers. His body, curled up on the floor, reportedly bore boot marks and other signs of beating. A later photo appeared to show that he had also been shot in the back. The victim, Douglas Rafael da Silva Pereira (known as DG), was a dancer on Rede Globo\u2019s hugely popular Sunday afternoon TV program, Esquenta<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The reaction to DG\u2019s death was explosive, with subsequent protests\u2013spilling out into Copacabana, to the shock of tourists and Rio\u2019s wealthy\u2013receiving extensive international coverage<\/a>. The parallels to Amarildo Dias de Souza\u2019s torture and death<\/a> at the hands of UPP police in Rocinha last July, a major blow to the reputation of the pacification program, has reignited fierce debate within Brazil about the nature of the UPPs, militarized policing, and their relation to favela residents. Controversy has escalated in recent months, and for many, this has been the tipping point. One resident of Pav\u00e3o-Pav\u00e3ozinho<\/a> asked: \u201cHow are we supposed to accept this project here continuing in the name of pacification? When, truthfully, they are entering prepared for a war, a war against people who\u00a0are tired from a\u00a0history of war and fighting. They\u00a0are entering and bringing yet more war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>DG\u2019s death might have gone largely un-discussed in mainstream media were it not for his public visibility on Esquenta<\/em>. The death of one of their own has prompted the Globo Corporation to rally around DG and his family, with O Globo<\/em> even breaking its usual line by running a piece suggesting<\/a> that UPPs are in a \u201cmoment of crisis.\u201d On the edition of Esquenta<\/em> following DG\u2019s death<\/a>, the\u00a0emotional presenter Regina Cas\u00e9 received DG\u2019s family and friends to discuss his tragic death, yet the discussion was largely sanitized, initially with minimal\u00a0reference to the context of DG\u2019s death–UPPs, the criminalization of poverty, the history of police violence<\/a>, or favelas–until the\u00a0silence\u00a0became unsustainable.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a poignant moment<\/a>, Cas\u00e9 turned to the audience: \u201cWho here is called Silva?\u201d she asked. After a significant number put their hands up, she lamented that \u201cDouglas was just another Silva,\u201d a reference to the funk song<\/a> about the anonymity of those who die in the periferias<\/em> of Brazil, where many bear\u00a0this name. And in an even more unquieting moment, she asked how many people in the audience had lost a loved one, friend or neighbor to gun violence, and dozens of\u00a0hands shot up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>DG\u2019s visibility helped ensure his death not go unnoticed, and that he was not \u201cjust another Silva.\u201d Yet on the very same day, in the protests following DG\u2019s death, resident of Pav\u00e3o-Pav\u00e3ozinho and another Silva\u2013literally\u2013was killed. Edilson da Silva dos Santos (known as Mateuzinho), was shot in the head and died soon after, his death not receiving nearly the same attention. The 27 year-old reportedly had mental problems, and his burial, the day before Esquenta<\/em>, was attended by only 21 people\u2013there was not even a chapel service.<\/p>\n

Deaths and attacks\u00a0have continued around the city since DG and Mateuzinho died. On Sunday April 27, the day of Esquenta<\/em>, 71 year-old Dona Dalva, full name Arlinda Bezerra das Chagas, was caught up in a shootout and killed in the Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, North Zone, far away from the spotlight of Copacabana. Even further north, in Morro do Chapad\u00e3o, Costa Barros<\/a>, 17 year-old Luiz Alberto Cunha was killed in a shootout the next day.<\/p>\n

Despite muted reactions in the mainstream media, these deaths sparked fury from the communities, with nine buses burned down in subsequent protests<\/a> as violence continued to spiral. Shockingly, a 12 year-old boy was shot in Pav\u00e3o-Pav\u00e3ozinho on the same night that DG and Mateuzinho were killed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In Alem\u00e3o, in protests following Dona Dalva\u2019s death, a UPA health center was the scene of rioting when a young shop assistant, Carlos Alberto de Souza, was shot in the stomach and taken there: “The family desperately asked for information and the police did not answer<\/a>. Fearing that Carlos was being tortured or even executed, the masses attacked the UPA\u2026 Carlos was left agonizing without medical attention for at least two hours.\u201d Rio Mayor\u00a0Eduardo Paes<\/a>\u00a0and new State Governor Luiz Fernando Pez\u00e3o visited the scene the following day, denouncing the \u201cdelinquents\u201d who had attacked the unit, labeling them criminals who interfere with the pacification.<\/p>\n

The extent of the damage done to the reputation of the UPPs, and subsequent attempts to limit it, was evidenced in an article published by O Globo<\/em>, before being quickly and surreptitiously taken off the site: \u201cMilitary Police request that journalists do not accompany the operation in Alem\u00e3o.\u201d The strategy of controlling press reports on the extent of the violence taking place there was quickly denounced. One human rights lawyer posted the article with the comment:\u00a0\u201cthe Military Police does not want witnesses to the violations committed by its representatives, the excesses in approaching [residents], the absolute psychological lack of control in [their] war machine.\u201d A community journalist reported that journalists in Alem\u00e3o were under considerable risk: \u201cIndependent journalists almost died yesterday during the protests, and today O Globo<\/em> took this article, published yesterday, off the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

The murder of a public figure such as DG led to a crisis of public opinion on the UPPs\u2013one that has been brewing over the past year but largely brushed aside by public officials and a complacent media. However, as cracks in the program grow deeper<\/a>, becoming harder to hide, the complaints coming from within\u2013that the militarized presence of the state in favelas today is in many places no\u00a0different from that of the past, and that abuse and repression are happening despite the marketing of \u201cpacification\u201d and “bringing security to the people who live there”\u2013appear to be ever more present\u00a0in mainstream debate.<\/p>\n

The public mourning of DG, with international repercussions, has helped foster this debate. However, as other \u201cSilvas\u201d continue to be killed, quickly swallowed up by the anonymity of statistics, there is still a considerable distance to be travelled, and it is necessary to strengthen and democratize the channels of communication coming out of the favelas. Only in this way can the experience of favela residents in relation to the UPPs be freely expressed and scrutinized, breaking the pattern\u00a0of silence\u00a0with\u00a0one or two occasionally slipping through the net\u2013as happened with Amarildo and now DG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Tuesday, April 22, a young man was found dead inside a day care center in Pav\u00e3o-Pav\u00e3ozinho, South Zone of Rio, allegedly\u00a0killed by local Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) officers. His body, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":14822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1277,1288,335,328,336,1329],"tags":[944,32,718,25,918,1187,37,15,155,17,809,12,156],"writer":[1776],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uppwatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-policies","10":"category-understanding-rio","11":"category-violations","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-cadeamarildo","14":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","15":"tag-costa-barros","16":"tag-human-rights","17":"tag-military-police","18":"tag-morro-do-chapadao","19":"tag-north-zone","20":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","21":"tag-pavao-pavaozinho","22":"tag-police-brutality","23":"tag-public-security","24":"tag-rocinha","25":"tag-south-zone","26":"writer-benjamin-parkin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=14789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}