{"id":60222,"date":"2020-06-18T09:04:32","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T12:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=60222"},"modified":"2021-07-08T16:02:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T19:02:03","slug":"between-the-virus-hunger-and-bullets-the-daily-chess-game-against-covid-19-in-the-favelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=60222","title":{"rendered":"Between the Virus, Hunger, and Bullets: The Daily Chess Game Against Covid-19 in the Favelas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is our latest article on the\u00a0<\/i>new coronavirus as it impacts Rio de Janeiro\u2019s favelas<\/a><\/i>\u00a0and part of our\u00a0<\/i>partnership with<\/em>\u00a0The Rio Times<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0For the article as published in The Rio Times click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

On June 15, the state of Rio de Janeiro exceeded 80,000 confirmed Covid-19<\/a> cases and nearly 8,000 deaths, according to the State Health Secretariat<\/a>. 5,090 of these deaths occurred within the state’s capital city, Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

Due to widespread underreporting<\/a> of the disease, especially in the city’s favelas, the number is undoubtedly much higher. A survey conducted by Voz das Comunidades<\/em><\/a> lists 15 areas monitored by the favela-based newspaper through publicly-available data. According to that conservative account, 1,832 residents have been infected with 397 cumulative deaths. Rio de Janeiro has 1018 favelas, according to the city\u2019s Pereira Passos<\/a> research institute. Very few are being monitored.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Clarice Lissovsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite facing this scenario of mourning and infection by the virus, black, poor, favela and peripheral residents of Rio occupied the streets for two consecutive Sundays to protest against racism. On May 31<\/a>, protestors gathered in front of the Pal\u00e1cio da Guanabara, the official residence of the governor, and shouted \u201cBlack Lives Matter!\u201d and \u201cFavela Lives Matter!\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 7<\/a>, another antiracist protest organized by the Favela na Luta Movement<\/a>\u2014with the participation of associations from the peripheries and the black community\u2014again gathered nearly a thousand people to march down the city’s central Avenida Presidente Vargas. But, why risk infection from coronavirus at physical, in-person protests?<\/p>\n

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Photo: Clarice Lissovsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Voices of favela residents heard by RioOnWatch<\/em> were emphatic. Protestors were forced to the streets by outrage, but also as part of a combination of factors: social vulnerability<\/a> exacerbated by the public health and economic crises caused by the new coronavirus, in addition to unrelenting police violence in the favelas<\/a>, even amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Renata Trajano of Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a>\u00a0and the Complexo do Alem\u00e3o Crisis Cabinet<\/a> said there is no such thing as \u201cthe favela not going to the streets\u201d when \u201cthe only certainty is death. We went to the streets because if you don\u2019t knock the system down, it ends up knocking you down.\u201d Rio favelas have experienced an increase, not a decrease, in police violence during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In April, police operations increased by 27.9%, according to a report by the Security Observatories Network<\/a>. The number of deaths due to intervention by State agents increased by 43% as compared to the same period in 2019, leaving 177 dead in a single month, according to the Public Safety Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Kati Tortorelli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brazil, and in particular Rio de Janeiro, has one of the most lethal police forces in the world<\/a>. It is within this context of choosing between death by hunger, the virus, or police rifles<\/a>, that the favelas face an impasse amid the Covid-19 pandemic. In this equation<\/a> of fear, pain, and mourning, not occupying the streets due to the risk of infection is not an option, said community leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s important today is to stay alive so that my favela can have rice and beans, because the State is not here, as usual,” explained Trajano. “The only thing that reaches the favela [coming] from the government is police firepower. If we\u2019re not out on the streets telling them to stop killing us, we\u2019ll be carting away bodies every day! Does the pandemic factor in my thinking? It does, but I have to think about how I’m going to survive first, about staying alive\u2026 so that afterward I can say I survived the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mother and head of household, a black woman, a human rights activist, and a resident of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, in the North Zone<\/a>, Trajano feels that \u201cbeing on the frontline of the fight against Covid-19\u201d is gratifying but also \u201cextremely painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Renata Trajano during the May 31 protest. Photo: Raull Santiago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trajano leaves her house every day in order to register families for basic food stuffs donated by companies and civil society to the Complexo do Alem\u00e3o Crisis Cabinet. \u201cWe have a State that tells us to stay at home, but doesn\u2019t provide any assistance. And most of my favela is comprised of black women who are heads of households. The State is doing nothing\u2026 and still asks us to carry on at home while getting shot and killed<\/a>. It is collective negligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 9, two days after participating in the antiracism protest in Rio, Trajano was stopped at a police checkpoint just as she was on her way to distribute food baskets in Morro dos Mineiros<\/a>, one of the favelas of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o.<\/p>\n

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Estava com minha bolsa portanto minhas armas, m\u00e1scaras, \u00e1lcool, planilhas impressas e canetas, estavamos com a camisa do @gabinetealemao<\/a> e devidamente equipados. Passei nossa localiza\u00e7\u00e3o pro restante da equipe que j\u00e1 estava no nosso ponto de encontro<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nega R\u00ea 🏴 (@RenataTrajano1) June 9, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n