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The primary impeachment course of in opposition to a metropolis councilor within the 329-year historical past of Curitiba – the Brazilian metropolis that almost all cherishes its “European heritage” – is underway, and it has nothing to do with any crime.
On January 24, Mugenyi Kabagambe, a 24 year-old Congolese immigrant, was crushed to demise behind the seaside kiosk the place he labored in Rio de Janeiro shortly after demanding he be paid his again wages. Brazil’s black actions instantly swung into motion and arranged a day of nationwide protest for February 5.
That day within the conservative metropolis of Curitiba, protesters marched by way of downtown, as much as the steps of Rosario Church. After deliberation, a bunch of them entered the church itself as a part of the protest. Rosario Church , initially inbuilt 1737, is symbolically vital for town’s 20% Afro-Brazilian inhabitants, because it was initially constructed by and for slaves. the church was practically empty on the time. Inside, a church official handed Freitas a microphone and he made a brief speech, after which the protesters peacefully left the world.
“Justice for Moise,” reads an indication held by protester in Rosario church. Picture: Giorgia Prates – Brasil do Fato
Shortly afterwards, out of context movies started circulating on the web blaming Freitas, of main an indignant mob right into a church whereas mass was underway and threatening churchgoers.
Curitiba’s practically all white city-council, made up primarily of supporters of far proper President Jair Bolsonaro, instantly filed for impeachment of Freitas for breach of parliamentary decorum, falsely accusing him of organizing the protest, brandishing a flag with the Employees Occasion brand on it, and main the march right into a church whereas mass was underway.
Video, photographic and eyewitness accounts show that: 1) the mass had already ended when the protesters arrived; 2) Freitas wasn’t within the first group that entered the church; 3) the one political celebration flag that was brandished by protesters within the church was from a special political celebration; and 4) the primary operate of his speech contained in the church, in addition to repudiating the racist homicide of Mugenyi Kabagambe, was to assist get everybody out of there peacefully.
The Curitiba Archdiocese of the Catholic Church formally requested Curitiba’s Metropolis Council to withdraw the impeachment request in opposition to Freitas in a letter which states, “protesting in opposition to racism is legit, is supported by the Gospel and may at all times be seen taking place in and round church buildings. We see the thirst for justice on this metropolis councilor, in favor of those that have traditionally suffered discrimination in our nation. The trigger is noble and deserves respect.”
On the evening of Could tenth, the 9-member Curitiba Metropolis Council ethics committee voted to deliver Freitas’ impeachment course of to a flooring vote. Ethics committee president Dalton Borba, from Ciro Gomes’ PDT celebration, solid a separate vote, calling for six months suspension, that was overruled by nearly all of the committee. If the impeachment goes by way of it is going to be the primary time within the 329 yr, corruption-riddled historical past of Curitiba {that a} Metropolis Councilor has been faraway from workplace.
Freitas, 37, grew up in a poor household on the periphery of Curitiba and, after dropping out of grammar faculty to work to assist his household, finally completed highschool in an grownup studying program, acquired into the state’s most prestigious regulation faculty, turned a civil rights lawyer and was elected into town council in 2019. He and fellow staff celebration councilor-elect Carol Dartora started receiving demise threats from neo-nazi teams earlier than even taking workplace.
6 months after taking workplace, in June, 2020, he was arrested by the municipal guard for “resisting arrest” whereas enjoying basketball in a metropolis park. Video proof confirmed that the fees had been utterly fabricated and after he was hauled right into a holding cell, they had been dropped.
Confira o momento em que o vereador Renato Freitas (@Renatoafjr) é detido e levado com violência pelos policiais, mesmo sem apresentar resistência. pic.twitter.com/objYl6IiDB
— Mídia NINJA (@MidiaNINJA) June 4, 2021
Video exhibiting harassment & arbitrary arrest of Councilor Freitas.
On the day of the ethics committee ruling on Freitas impeachment, he obtained an e mail from ethics commitee member and Bolsonaro ally, Councilman Sindei Toaldo saying, “Curitiba’s Metropolis Council shouldn’t be your house. Return to the slave plantation. And after you, we’ll discover a method to impeach Carol Dartora. We’re going to whiten Curitiba and the South whether or not you prefer it or not, you negrinho.“
Curitiba, which through the Nineteen Thirties was house to the biggest Nazi rally outdoors of Germany, prides itself on its Ukrainian, German and Polish heritage. As Carol Dartora, town’s first Afro-Brazilian lady metropolis councilor, says, “Curitiba is a particularly authoritarian metropolis. In fact racism is a structural drawback in all Brazilian cities – Brazil is a racist nation. However Curitiba, particularly, is constructed on and continues to propagate this picture that it’s a white metropolis and it organizes to push the poor, black inhabitants to the periphery. Curitiba has clearly eugenicist insurance policies.“
This yr Adriana Dias, an anthropologist who has been learning white supremacist terror teams in Brazil for years, printed a examine which exhibits that there are at present 530 neonazi teams working in Brazil, representing a rise of 270% since President Jair Bolsonaro took energy. Parana state, the place Curitiba is positioned, is the world with the very best variety of Nazi organizations, lots of which to have connections with different white supremacist teams within the US and Ukraine.
The movement to question Freitas now strikes to the ground of Curitiba’s metropolis council the place it wants 20 of 38 votes to make him the primary councilor impeached within the metropolis’s lengthy, racist historical past.
A press release of solidarity by the Brazilian Employees Occasion reads, “Freitas’ actions within the protest didn’t injury the picture of the legislative department nor the legitimacy of his mandate. Subsequently, the movement for his impeachment is an act of political persecution.”
BRASILWIRE want to categorical its solidarity with Renato Freitas.
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