{"id":30661,"date":"2016-07-20T10:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=30661"},"modified":"2016-07-23T13:18:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-23T16:18:47","slug":"our-torch-demonstration-calls-attention-to-intensifying-violence-in-complexo-do-alemao-ahead-of-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=30661","title":{"rendered":"\u201cOur Torch\u201d Demonstration Calls Attention to Intensifying Violence in Alem\u00e3o Ahead of Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

On Saturday July 16 activists and residents of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone<\/a> participated in a peaceful demonstration to denounce violence<\/a>\u2014which has escalated in recent months<\/a> in anticipation of the Olympics<\/a>\u2014and to draw visibility to the intense police presence and\u00a0absence of adequate public policies.<\/p>\n

The demonstration was organized by local media collective Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a> and community-based newspaper Jornal Voz das Comunidades<\/a>, with support from other civil society groups and residents of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o.<\/p>\n

The event, which garnered significant local and international media attention, began at the Pacifying Police Unit<\/a>\u00a0(UPP)\u00a0base on Ita\u00f3ca Avenue. Holding a torch marked with red handprints to represent the blood of victims of violence, Raull Santiago<\/a> of Papo Reto addressed the group:<\/p>\n

This is an action to call attention to the condition of violence in which the majority of favelas are living, which has intensified with the approach<\/a> of the mega-events in Rio de Janeiro. In 2007, when the Pan American Games<\/a>\u00a0took place, Complexo do Alem\u00e3o received a mega [police] operation in which many people were killed\u2014this was the principal legacy of the Pan in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o. During the process of the World Cup<\/a>, military interventions in the favela intensified, as well as the increasing violation of rights in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o. Once again, our ‘participation’ in the mega-events meant receiving a large contingent [of forces] to militarize space. And now, with the Olympics, this is repeating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Raull pointed to the disjuncture between the rhetoric of unity associated with the Olympics and the reality of\u00a0pre-Olympic Rio for residents of the city’s favelas, stating:<\/p>\n

This torch is a symbol, but it\u2019s not a criticism of the idea behind the Olympics and what it signifies. For us, it signifies the way by which the City of Rio de Janeiro, the State and Brazil are going about the event in our city. Because the ideology of uniting people that the Games propose is brilliant. But the reality of our city is the opposite\u2014there is a lot of violence, painful situations and various problems within the favelas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Four years after\u00a0the implementation of the first UPPs\u00a0in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o, gun violence remains nearly a daily occurrence. As of July 17, Voz das Comunidades has counted<\/a> 35 injuries and deaths (of both civilians and police) resulting from shootings in the complex’s\u00a0favelas this year\u2014a figure which represents one person shot every five days.\u00a0A\u00a0shootout beginning at 7am on the morning of the demonstration prevented some residents from participating. Accordingly, the\u00a0cable car<\/a>\u00a0stopped functioning\u00a0due to security concerns.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Highlighting this discrepancy between the hyper-presence of the State in the form of policing and the absence of the State in other areas of public policy such as education, housing and social services, Raull described:<\/p>\n

The only public policy\u2014and the principal participation of favela residents<\/a> in the Olympic Games in planning the city in recent years\u2014has been engagement with us from the viewpoint of the police\u2019s rifle. This modus operandi<\/em>\u00a0follows\u00a0the same\u00a0logic of the so-called \u2018war on drugs,’ in which residents die, police die, and nothing changes. We continue to die\u2026 The losses are losses of the poor. They\u2019re losses of youth, who in this society, in the way of drug traffic, get weapons and begin to kill and die. They\u2019re police who, abandoned by the State, unpaid<\/a>, in a situation of violence, are thrown into the favela to kill and die\u2026 And principally, us. As targets of both rifles, we receive what they call \u2018stray bullets’ every day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Thain\u00e3 de Medeiros<\/a>, also a member of Coletivo Papo Reto, read the names of recent shooting\u00a0victims in\u00a0Complexo do Alem\u00e3o\u2014civilians and police alike. Thain\u00e3 called for a moment of silence in their memory after the names were placed in a cardboard casket.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators then carried the torch and casket as they marched down\u00a0Itarar\u00e9 Road, occupying the street.\u00a0The group briefly paused in\u00a0front of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o\u2019s urgent care clinic (UPA), often the first destination for shooting victims in the area.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The march concluded at the entrance of Grota on Joaquim de Queiroz Road, where the group gathered next to the street market. Lana de Souza, also of Coletivo Papo Reto, read aloud the names of a handful of living individuals, emphasizing the urgency of current circumstances as a reminder that anyone in attendance could be the next victim of gun violence: \u201cWe need to do something, or the next name could be yours.\u201d Next, Raull recited lyrics of a funk poem he authored, calling upon residents to say \u201cEnough!\u201d to the daily\u00a0violence experienced in this \u201cwar for peace.\u201d The floor then opened up for residents to speak up and share experiences.<\/p>\n

In light of the escalating violence, it is essential to recognize forms of\u00a0community-based mobilization and resistance<\/a>. As Thain\u00e3 stated: \u201cThe favelas are very much alive\u2026 despite attempts to silence them and contain these social groups.\u201d\u00a0In a similar vein, Voz das Comunidades journalist Daiene Mendes recounted in her recent piece<\/a>\u00a0featured in the Guardian<\/em>\u2019s \u2018View from the Favelas\u2019 series<\/a>: “We are \u2018traffickers’ of culture and information… Our weapon is our narrative, and our struggle is for the right to live in Alem\u00e3o and the chance to live together without daily shootings, without the terror of the police, without fear of drug traffickers.\u201d The work of Papo Reto and Voz da Comunidade attests to the power of media activism as one such form of resistance\u2014bringing visibility to the reality the Olympic City as experienced by residents of Alem\u00e3o.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Saturday July 16 activists and residents of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone participated in a peaceful demonstration to denounce violence\u2014which has escalated in recent months in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":30664,"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":[1736,1277,1290,1333,336,1329],"tags":[9,1606,1653,756,32,1419,25,1681,1259,918,37,5,15,152,17,18,270,268,1843,365],"writer":[1695],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-uppwatch","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-event-reports","11":"category-violations","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-9","14":"tag-coletivo-papo-reto","15":"tag-community-media","16":"tag-community-organizing","17":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","18":"tag-favela-da-grota","19":"tag-human-rights","20":"tag-media-collective","21":"tag-mega-events","22":"tag-military-police","23":"tag-north-zone","24":"tag-olympics","25":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","26":"tag-participation","27":"tag-police-brutality","28":"tag-protest","29":"tag-resistance","30":"tag-state-violence","31":"tag-voz-das-comunidades","32":"tag-zero-participation","33":"writer-ava-rose-hoffman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30661","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\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30661"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=30661"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=30661"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=30661"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=30661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}