on the first day of the world cup, i posted something on facebook about how i thought you couldn't watch the games and care about human rights at the same time. a month later, i wish i had changed my mind. i would love to say that i've gotten caught up in the spirit of togetherness or just the giant fan-driven street party in rio. i would love to say that the beauty and emotion of the games had helped me see the light. but as the cup has gone on, police have gone on killing indiscriminately in rio's favelas; victims include a 3-year-old named luiz felipe who was shot in the face, and a 15-year-old who was killed execution-style (another teenager played dead and escaped). and protestors in rio have been subject to increased police violence (including live ammunition), arbitrary arrests, and intimidation. as the games have gone on, the human rights situation in rio and throughout brasil has continued to go downhill, and the cup is directly to blame.
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| rafael marques lusvarghi, an english teacher in são paulo, is pepper sprayed while immobilized during protests on the first day of the world cup. |
yesterday, two of my friends were taken into police custody where they will be held for the next five days, and another has a warrant out in his name for similar treatment, all because of their association with past protests in rio de janeiro. they are musicians, students, public school teachers, and all around good folks, and they were charged with possessing gas masks, or anti-cup pamphlets, or t-shirts connected to local protest groups. in the last 24 hours, local police have issued at least 60 "preventative" arrest warrants that will let them detain activists for 5 days with no charges, keeping them off the streets and attempting to demoralize and scare the rest of us away from participating in protests scheduled today's final game.
the judge's decree that permits all that is right here. i don't have time to translate it all, but it authorizes these illegal and unconstitutional arrests for anyone that cops decide is capable of carrying out "extreme violence."
before getting locked up, my friends have been tear gassed, pepper sprayed, beaten up, and dragged by cops. kids in favelas have been executed execution-style or by stray bullets. tomorrow marks exactly one year since amarildo went missing, and though we pretty much know for sure that he was tortured to death by a group of "pacifying" cops, his body has never been recovered. yet activists, not cops, are accused of "extreme violence," and now at least 20 of the 60 warrants have been served, taking activists off the streets for five days to prevent them from carrying signs and chanting.
(meanwhile, a british executive for a fifa-licensed ticket agency who is suspected of perpetrating millions of dollars in fraud was released on a decree of habeus corpus 12 hours after rio cops took him in).
i'm writing this en route to today's protests, so i don't have time to make it polished or especially well-written. but my point is this: the world cup has been a fiasco for human rights in brasil since the planning stages, and it's only gotten worse in execution. the poor and disenfranchised continue to be the prime targets of state-sanctioned violence, and free expression and freedom to assemble - both guaranteed by the brasilian constitution - are arrestable offenses these days. i wish our experience here had been different, but it's increasingly clear that the beauty and drama on the field can only be maintained by a crackdown against anyone that fifa or the police perceive to be a threat.
so if you're watching the final, i hope you think of my friends who are being held in jailhouses and prisons to prevent them from marching today. i hope you're thinking of luiz felipe. their freedom is the price of your spectacle. and i do hope the whole thing leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth, because living through the cup has certainly left a bad taste in ours.
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