The Life and Death of Juan Moraes Neves

Source: Diário do Grande ABC. Image: Veja.com.

File under police criminality and violence.

What is unusual about the case is the successful follow-up by forensic investigators: for decades, the rubric “resistance followed by death” has been used to muddy the waters in police shooting cases.

Crime scenes are almost routinely disturbed by supposed “efforts to resuscitate” the victim — a practice recently discontinued by the São Paulo military police, which is resisting the rule requiring the fire brigade to handle paramedical tasks.

Judge Marcio Alexandre Pacheco da Silva of the Fourth Jury Court of Nova Iguaçu, in the Baixada Fluminense, has scheduled for September 9 the trial of four military policemen accused of involvement in the murder of the minor Juan Moraes Neves, 11 years old at the time of his death in June 2011. The incident occurred in Danon, in Nova Iguaçu.

The case was originally recorded as “resistance followed by death” (death of a suspect in armed confrontation with police) but after an investigation by the state judicial police it was concluded that no armed confrontation took place. The judge expects proceedings to last at least four days.

A jury will decided the fate of sergeants Isaías Souza do Carmo and Ubirani Soares and corporals Edilberto Barros do Nascimento and Rubens da Silva. All have been in preventive custody since 2011. At the time of the incident, the four were assigned to the 20th Battalion  (Mesquita).

The PMs were carrying out an antidrug operation in Danon on the the night of June 20, 2011. During that time, two suspects were killed: 11-year-old Juan and Igor de Souza Afonso, 17  (suspected of having ties to the drug trade). Another two young men, including Juan’s brother, were shot, but survived.

Juan’s body was not located until 10 days after the incident along the margins of the Rio Botas in Belford Roxo, a community neighboring Nova Iguaçu.

A state judicial police expert initially stated that the  the body found in the river was that of a young girl. However, a DNA test comparing genetic material from Juan’s family members with a blood sample taken from a sandal worn by the victim on the day he disappeared proved that the body was that of a male.

The Baixada Fluminense homicide division (DHBF) proved that Juan was killed with bullets from two 7.62mm assault rifles used by the PM officers. Ballistics examinations were performed on shell casings found at the scene.

The four PMs were charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree attempted murder, and tampering with evidence (concealing of a corpse).

«Street Fighting Man Lacks Street Fighting Plan»

Correspondents of this blog have expressed curiosity about the street demonstrations in São Paulo this week, ostensively aimed at defeating a R$0.20 fare hike on buses, trains and the subway. Its DNA is a prior movement calling for free passes for students, hence the Movimento Passe Livre.

A manifesto published by student and youth groups on Vi o Mundo reflects deeper, systematic changes in the system that mesh with the urban development agenda of newly elected São Paulo mayor, Fernando Haddad.

Murilo, meanwhile, blasts the state administration and its law enforcement arm, the Policia Militar. Protesters are not spared criticism. The blogger sees the event as an exercise in “intellectual poverty, police violence and authoritarian militants with no imagination.”

As with so many other protest movements over the past three decades, the tactics of the MPL seem like an anachronistic copy of the marches against the military dictatorship in 1964 and the rebellions of May 1968, inspired by the barricades of the proletarian uprisings in France in 1848 and 1871.

The MPL is decrepit, but not because authentic rebellion is out of fashion, or becauses its ideas are petty versions of outworn thinking. The MPL is old fashioned and regressive in its amateurism as well.

Revolutionary and liberal reform movements of the last 60, or 150, years were more creative, better organized and capable of using the state of the art resources, communication technologies and political tactics of their time …

Carried out by youthful militants, MPL is not even able to use the technologies of the day, such as the Internet and cell phones. They do not know how to project their image in the social networks. They do not know how to organize protests that build social support. They have no legal counsel or political connections.  They lack theoretical or strategic intelligence, and therefore lack political capacity: the capacity to convince, to grow, to lead a worthwhile cause to victory.

As the excerpt translated below observes, correctly, the movement seems to have gotten swept up in the net utopian dream of auto-organizing fragmented heteregeneous movements.

Instead of a protest march that degenerates into a conventional, violence and therefore, in the final analysis, authoritarian skirmish, why doesn’t the MPL simple lie down in the street, holding white flags?

I’m not kidding.

For defenders of “urban mobility”, it would be an ironic gesture. It would produce images that would be seen all over the world. It would put state violence to shame. If the PM wish to remove the protestors, it would have to carry away thousands, one by one.

If the police still assaulted the protesters, imagine the headline: “Police beat youth lying down and carrying white flags.” Finally, they would gain sympathy; the current violence is above all contraproductive.

In the first night of action, more than 80 buses were destroyed or partially destroyed.

Yes, it is obvious that the police have been barbarian, antidemocratic and professionally inept. Geraldo Alckmin is nearly directly responsible for the beatings and shootings.  He made not have commanded police to “lock them up and bust their heads” (as president-general João Batista Figueiredo, 1979-1985, famously said), but he has given that sort of tone to the event.

Since his first state government, Alckmin has given the police a free hand, endorsing the macho ideal that “the police doesn’t turn the other cheek.” It distibutes beatings and shooting.  But police work is supposed to be a technical activity, a public service, not a street fighting force or militia.  It is also true, of course, that police should not be stoned, shot or killed in the line of duty.

The lack of professional training of the police, Alckmin’s invitation to play the role of storm trooper, and the intellectual poverty (and authoritarian violence) of the MPL have provoked this senseless violence.

In a manifesto published by some of Brazil’s most important social movements — the MST, for example — the alignment of social activism and policy is quite visible.  The ruling PSDB is castigated for lack of progress in public transport and a new paradigm is proposed for a less autocentric city.

These protests are important because they spotlight an issue crucial to city residents: urban mobility. Residents lose hours and hours every day in cars or buses or in crowded commuter train and subway cars.  These are hours that could be dedicated to family life or culture, sport and leisure, of which they are deprived because of the obvious preference for individual private cars to the detriment of public and collective transport.

The history of chaotic urban development, the traffic caused by cars during peak hours, the lack of  adequate subway and commuter train service, the poor quality of the system and the extortion practiced by private bus concessionaires, along with the elevated fares for public transportation, represent a social problem that affects everyone, and especially the poor who live on the periphery.

The slow progress of the subway system is a chronic issue for the PSDB, which has built a mere 21,6 km of track, representing 1.4 km per year. For this reason, São Paulo has the smallest public transport system among major world capitals (a mere 65.9 km).

The seriousness of this issue made urban transport one of the central themes of the municipal elections last year. Candidate Fernando Haddad, elected mayor, promised responses that would get to the root of the issue.

The prefecture’s efforts to enact a fare increase lower than inflation by putting pressure on concessionaires are not responsive to the expectations raised by its victory over the conservative sectors in the last election.

This revolution in urban planning demands structural measures such as the realization of a development model that does not depend on offering a stimulus to the automobile industry and the implementation of direct control over transport fares by “municipalizing” public transport.  In this way, we are able to avoid the subsidies of the concessionaires, whose financial interests are not aligned with the possibility of a transport system that sees to the needs of the citizen.

For this reason, the youth protests are expecially significant: They represent a symptom of the problem and constitute a social force capable of identifying and sustaining structural changes in territorial organization and urban mobility.  These protests are a means of applying pressure to the authorities and sustaining negotiations with the same, and especially with the municipal administration, which we hope will win victories for the people and build forces for new struggles to come.

In this process, the bourgeios media and the conservative sectors set up a smoke screen to conceal the structural solutions for which the protest movement is striving, subjecting actions of a minority of protests to public execration.

This type of coverage spotlights the close relations between the news media and the auto industry (which is interested in selling more cars),the private bus concessionaires (which profit from extorting the city government), and real estate speculators (who oppose territorial reorganization).

We therefore manifest our support for the protests in defense of public transport, and hope to contribute to the peaceful massification of this movement. We condemn the violent reaction of the military police, demand the freedom of political prisoners and reject the fare hikes for buses, subway and train.

In sum, the struggle pits a private concession system against proponents of a zero-fare model. Politically, it will take the form of a municipalization drive that will bring lasting change if successful.

Consider the following: Among the first official acts of our last mayor was naming his brothers to head New Projects  at the Metro Authority and the other to head SPTRANS, the city bus authority. True story.

Joe Biden in Brasília

Source: Brasilianas.Org

Biden and the U.S.-Brazil Relationship

By Mauro Santayana

The visit of U.S. vice-president Joe Biden to Brazil and the confirmation of a state visit by President Dilma Rousseff to the U.S. are indicators of a change in the level of U.S.-Brazil relations.

Traditionally averse to closer diplomatic ties with South America, the U.S. has suddenly realized the importance of Brazil in the region and the world. Among other things, this international presence explains Brazil’s recent victory in the WTO, overcoming the vote of 26 European nations and the U.S. itself.

Contemporary Brazil is, from any angle you look at it, a necessary partner in the region.

Mexico’s largest petrochemical project is being built by a Brazilian company.  A little to the East, in the Antilles, the new Port of Mariela, Cuba’s most important project, is being built by a Brazilian company, along with new facilities for Azcuba, the state-owned sugar producer, and various modernization projects in the sugar sector.  For Bolivia, the sale of Brazilian gas is vital: Bolivia exports 30 million cubic meters a day to its neighbor.

In Bolivia and Peru, Brazil is designing and building transoceanic highways and railways that will open up the Pacific ports and facilitate economic ties between the two halves of the continent.  In Peru, Brazilian companies are drilling tunnels in the Andes in order to bring water for irrigation to arid zones. In Paraguay, Brazil is financing and building a transmission line connecting Itaipu to Western Brazil. In Argentina, the most important project currently under discussion is the exploration of potassium reserves on the Rio Colorado, which will be built by a Brazilian company.

With the support of Spain and Mexico, the U.S. is trying to offset Brazil’s roll in Latin America with initiatives such as the Aliança do Pacífico.  This is a waste of effort, given that Brazil is already the principal Latin American commercial partner of all the nations involved. Besides, the Alliance cannot compete with Unasul of the não pode concorrer com a Unasul ou o com Conselho de Defesa da América do Sul (CDS), institutions in which Peru, Colombia and Chile are full members and share significant projects with Brazil, such as Embraer’s new military transport, the KC-390, or the development of river patrol boats for Amazônia.

Biden made a point of mentioning characteristics that reflect on Brazil’s role in the world, such as its status as seventh largest economy in the world, with a GDP greater than Russia and India, while omitting other characteristics, such as the fact that Brazil is the USA’s third-largest external creditor.

We should seek closer relations, a dialog of equals, with the U.S., without allowing ourselves to be seduced by their siren’s song. They have their interests and we, ours. They have Nafta, and we have Mercosul and the BRICS.

«Chaos» In The Sambodian Subway

Eastern Zone stations due for completion in 2014

«Overcrowded Metrô reflects on chaos in public transportation»

Source: Estado de S. Paulo

Translation: C. Brayton

SÃO PAULO – Scenes of S. Paulo’s overcrowded subway system have caught the attention of the foreign press. Reuters published a series of images of overcrowded trains during peak rush hour, noting that Brazil’s largest city “faces some of the worst gridlock in the world.”

The news agency says that city and its 20 million inhabitants spend up to three hours on a journey of approximately 14 km in the wealthiest neighborhoods and the principal financial center of Brazil.

Rio | The Return of the Men in Black

Underground Rio van service vehicle, loaded with black-clad corpses wearing combat boots. August 2007

Source: O Globo.

A challenge to police assigned to the Alemão complex: drug trade uses guerrilla tactics against UPPs.

A group comprising former soldiers and coopted by the drug trade currently controls the Maré shantytown complex and is said to be present in other pacified areas, such as Alemão and Penha.

[photo caption] Military police on motorcycles intensified their patrols in the Alemão complex after an exchange of gunfire on Sunday.

RIO — An intelligence report prepared by state law enforcement to explain the activities of the drug trade in Maré, despite its pacification, may contain an important clue to problems faced by police in another area: the Penha and Alemão complexes. In 15 pages replete with photos of armed drug traffickers and aerial photography, the document reports that the criminals have adopted guerrilla tactics, in which stealth is combined with extreme mobility and group members operate in small, heavily armed groups.

• PM will assign more manpower to shantytown complexes
• Gunfire was act of sabotage
• Police patrols reinforced in Alemão complex after gunfire during a fun run in the Alemão complex.
• Closed in the morning, local commerce reopens.
• Road race commemorates six months of occupation of the Penha and Alemão complexes

The Death of Roberto Civita | The Man Who Would Be Murdoch

Via Brasilianas.Org

Roberto Civita has passed away.

Civita was the key figure in bringing American journalistic standards to Brazil, convincing his father to create news and information magazines.

The first of these was Realidade. According to journalists who worked with him, such as Luiz Fernando Mercadante, the young Civita had sound journalistic sense, and handled the importation of U.S. entertainment models with talent.

Sometime thereafter came Veja, copying the model of a U.S. journalism product.

The editorial standards adopted were based on those of Time. They consisted of treating news as though it were melodrama. On Monday, a planning meeting would be held in which the articles with most appeal to the readers would be selected. The issue was planned in accordance with criteria that made the news more attractive to read. Then the reporters would go out in search of quotations that confirmed the theses predefined and defended by the magazine.

Coverage | Rating Port Reports

Via Observatório da Imprensa

By: Rolf Kuntz

Translate: C. Brayton

The Brazilian government is busy trying to stimulate the modernization of and competition among the ports, the stated goals of Provisional Measure 595, approved by a final vote in Congress on May 16.

Brazilian ports are among the best in the world at processing iron ore but occupy 35th place in the handling of containers, according to a study executed by FIRJAN and reproduced in the May 19 edition of O Globo.

To stimulate competition, however, it will be necesary to multiply access routes to various terminals, the Estado de S. Paulo warned in an article published the same day.

The contrast between coverage by the Folha and O Globo is striking: the Folha refers insistently to the current “chaos” as O Globo looks forward to an advance in the rankings, as follows.

Brazilian ports are experiencing a paradox. In port terminals for the export of iron, Brazil leads the world rankings in first, second and fifth place. Among ports that handle containers, it falls to 35th place, bringing up the rear in a study released by FIRJAN, the Rio de Janeiro industrial federation. Investments in increased capacity, modernization of equipment and improvements in electronic cargo handling could elevate Brazil to 17th place within three years. This leap, according to experts, could be favored by the MP dos Portos, approved last week in Congress.

Returning to the Estado analysis and its prognosis of “chaos”:

“The lack of alternative routes ends up overloading the southern and southeastern coastal ports, while other ports are practically idle.  In the area of grains, nearly two-thirds of production for export leaves the country through Santos (SP) and Paranaguá (PR). The rest is divided among 16 terminals scattered along the coast,” the article said.

With these articles, the two newspapers enriched the reader’s understanding one of the hottest and complex issues of the week, the vote on the Provisional Measure of the Ports. The major news organizations made a mighty effort over the course of that week to follow the voting in the two houses of Congress. Moreover, they took the trouble to explain the issue in detail and demonstrate to readers how important it was.

Hard Work

There were long, hard negotiations in the lower house. The government had failed to mobilize its congressional base of support. For this reason, a last-minute push was needed to obtain votes for the measure without agreeing to disastrous amendments.  MP 595 was to lose its validity at midnight on May 16.

An MP is a bill sent down by the executive to be voted by the Congress, with a time constraint. The mechanism is often criticized as an incursion of executive power into the powers of Congress.

With some of its main allies working against the bill, the government had to make concessions and promise resources for projects financed by budget amendments.

According to journalistic accounts, the Treasury is to release R$ 1 billion, and more political appointments are to be made. Debates in Câmara went on well into the night and the decisive session lasted 22 hours. Lawmakers were photographed sleeping on the floor of Congress, but sleep is a luxury reporters do not enjoy.

Observing this marathon was only part of the mission. Day by day it was necessary to explain the principal changes proposed, their consequences, and the probable reaction of the government.  It may be argued whether the effort was consistently successful, but the performance of the media was undeniable. It would be very difficult to obtain, in these conditions, a better result.  On May 17, the major dailies were still fixated on final approval of the bill, obtained quickly and with surprising facility by the Senate. The effort to translate the details of the text for the lay reader and to indicate the likely presidential vetos continued on Saturday.

Complex Agenda

On Sundary, the newspapers made space on the front page again for the topic.  “Brazil may advance in global ranking,” informed O Globo, with a jump head for an article on the classification and future of the ports. “New ports will require new roads and railroads,”, was the top headline of the Estadão. In a more discrete reference to the story, at the foot of the front page, the Folha de S. Paulo registered the statement: “‘I am not an evil genius’, said Eduardo Cunha, an opponent of the MP dos Portos”. Cunha leads the PMDB in the lower house of congress, the part of vice-president Michel Temer and the government’s most powerful ally. Its resistance was the principal obstacle to the approval of the measure.

Given the prospect that certain articles may be vetoed, there is much new material that will have to be explored and explained in subsequent editions. To date, the MP dos Portos is the most complete and best-organized governmental initiative to increase efficiency and competitiveness of the Brazilian economy.  But it is merely one part of a much broader agenda, as exemplified by the Estado’s story on the condition of access roads connecting to the terminals.

Logistics | Any Port in a Paperless Storm

Brazilian port authorities. Source: Secretaria dos Portos

Source: Folha de S.Paulo, which tends to lead its Mercado section with stories highlighting lack of progress toward goals defined by the current federal administration, with talking heads provided by industry lobbying groups.

This approach can be thought of as a subgenre of the «chaos» meme — «chaos in the skies», «chaos on the streets», chaos, chaos, everywhere.

The captain of a ship flying foreign colors, arriving in Brazil, is obliged to supply 190 pieces of information to Brazilian authorities. At times, the same information must be submitted in different documents to the tax authority, the Navy, the public health autority and the federal police.

Brazilian ports operate in chaotic conditions

In order to depart Brazil, the situation is the same: Of the 13 days a container takes to reach its destination, six are spent on paperwork at the port, according to the World Bank.  Clearing Singapore, which leads the world in this ranking, takes one day, while in the United States it takes two.

This is one reason why the price of exporting a container from Brazil is more than double the amount charged in Europe: US$ 2,215 in Brazil and US$ 1,028 in Europe.

Despite the logistical chaos of entering and exiting Brazilian ports, bureaucracy remains the main problem, according to a survey of users conducted by ILOS, the Institute of Logistics and Supply Chain.

None of the problems, however, were addressed by the recent Provisional Measure of the Ports, a bill approved after a political battle in the National Congress.

Maluf | Corruption Comes Home to Roost

The Maluf-inspired Roberto Marinho Avenue — a Sambodian Big Dig

G1 reports

A court in the Isle of Jersey, a European fiscal paradise, has ordered the transfer of one million pounds sterling — some R$ 4.5 million — with ties to the family of federal deputy Paulo Maluf (PP-SP) to the municipal coffers of São Paulo.

The funds were released on Friday (May 24) and deposited in the account of a law firm representing the city in London.  The money will be returned to the public coffers on May 28, since May 27 is a holiday in Great Britain.

Jersey court denies Maluf appeals Jersey, orders Maluf-owned companies to return US$ 28 million to SP

Jersey condemns Maluf to repay embezzled funds

Bolsa Familia | Rumors Rampant

An intriguing case of moral panic marketing grabbed Brazilian headlines this week as beneficiaries of an income subsidy for impoverished families reacted to a rumor that the subsidy would be cancelled.

Press coverage of the case has been as confused as the speculations surrounding it, with situation and opposition trading insinuations.

The Sunday Folha de S. Paulo, for example, questions the official version, according to which the Caixa Economica Federal had reacted to the rumors with an adjustment to its payment calendar with the story of a beneficiary who withdrew her benefits days before these were due to be paid — part of an unannounced system test, the Caixa told the Folha.

In the Estado de S. Paulo, a later admission by President Rousseff that human error may have played a role and an order to supporters to await the end of the investigation before drawing public conclusions.

This represents a change to the evolving theory of the case, as reported by  Viomundo, as follows:

BRASÍLIA – After less than a week of investigation, the federal police have uncovered evidence that a telemarketing center in Rio de Janeiro was used to spread the rumor that the Bolsa Family income subsidy, the principal social program of the federal government,  would end.

A voice message distributed by the marketer announced the end of the program, according to findings of an investigation open early last week based on an order by the Minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo. The discovery reinforces the theory that the rumor was part of an organized campaign.

The federal police will now try to discover who hired the telemarketing firm and whether, in fact, there exists a group with a political interest in causing panic among Bolsa Familia recipients. Starting next week, the police have also decided to interview the first 200 persons to withdraw money from the fund at the same moment the rumors began to circulate.  The police want to known how each beneficiary was informed about the supposed cancellation of the program.

— The use of a telemarketing firm is a proven fact — according to a source close to the investigations.

False rumors that the program would end began to circulate last Saturday and caused a run on the Caixa Econômica Federal, which pays out the benefit [using a debit card]. The first withdrawals were made in Maranhão, Pará and Ceará at around 11 a.m. last Saturday, 30 minutes after the receipt of one of the calls from the telemarketing center.  The following day, Caixa ATMs recorded 900,000 withdrawals worth R$ 152 million.

President Dilma Rousseff called the rumor-mongering a criminal act. Cardozo said the most likely explanation is that of an orchestrated campaign. Minister of the National Secretariate of Human Rights Maria do Rosário insinuated in a Twitter post that the opposition was the source of the rumors. Opposition leaders fought back, raising suspicions that sectors of the government wound up benefiting politicallyfrom the confusion.

Investigators have made an effort to avoid the political dispute, but are not ruling out a political motive. The Bolsa Família has been the topic of debate in the principal elections of recent years. Based on a closer investigation of the use of telemarketing and the witness testimony of beneficiaries, the police believe they can solve the case.

Folha de S. Paulo:  Caixa Alters Payout Calendar

One day after the rumor that caused long lines and public disorder in 13 Brazilian states, the Caixa Econômica Federal altered the calendar for payments of the Bolsa Família without advance warning.

All the benefits, totaling R$ 2 billion, were paid in one lump sum to the program’s 13.8 million beneficiaries,

Housewife made withdrawal on Friday before the run on the ATMs, contradicting official statements that the state-owned bank has made since the beginning of the crisis.

The payout of all benefits took place last Friday, May 17. The following day, based on rumors about the end of the program and a supposed extra payment for Mothers Day, among others, thousands flocked to their bank branches to withdraw their benefits.