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 through downtown, as much as the steps of Rosario Church. After deliberation, a gaggle of them entered the church itself as a part of the protest. Rosario Church , initially inbuilt 1737, is symbolically necessary for the 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 realm.
“Justice for Moise,” reads an indication held by protester in Rosario church. Photograph: 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 Celebration 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 get together flag that was brandished by protesters within the church was from a unique political get together; 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 respectable, is supported by the Gospel and might at all times be seen occurring 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 bring Freitas’ impeachment process to a floor vote. Ethics committee president Dalton Borba, from Ciro Gomes’ PDT get together, solid a separate vote, calling for six months suspension, that was overruled by nearly all of the committee. If the impeachment goes by means of it is going to be the primary time within the 329 12 months, corruption-riddled historical past of Curitiba {that a} Metropolis Councilor has been faraway from workplace.
Freitas, 37, grew up in a poor family on the periphery of Curitiba and, after dropping out of grammar faculty to work to assist his household, ultimately completed highschool in an grownup studying program, received into the state’s most prestigious legislation faculty, turned a civil rights lawyer and was elected into the town council in 2019. He and fellow employees get together councilor-elect Carol Dartora started receiving death threats from neo-nazi groups earlier than even taking workplace.
6 months after taking workplace, in June, 2020, he was arrested by the municipal guard for “resisting arrest” whereas taking part in basketball in a metropolis park. Video proof confirmed that the costs had been fully 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 just isn’t your home. Return to the slave plantation. And after you, we’ll discover a strategy 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 throughout the Nineteen Thirties was dwelling to the largest Nazi rally outside of Germany, prides itself on its Ukrainian, German and Polish heritage. As Carol Dartora, the town’s first Afro-Brazilian lady metropolis councilor, says, “Curitiba is an especially authoritarian metropolis. In fact racism is a structural downside 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 12 months Adriana Dias, an anthropologist who has been finding out white supremacist terror teams in Brazil for years, published a study which exhibits that there are presently 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 realm with the very best variety of Nazi organizations, lots of which to have connections with different white supremacist groups in 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.
An announcement of solidarity by the Brazilian Workers Party reads, “Freitas’ actions within the protest didn’t harm the picture of the legislative department nor the legitimacy of his mandate. Due to this fact, the movement for his impeachment is an act of political persecution.”
BRASILWIRE wish to categorical its solidarity with Renato Freitas.
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