List of deaths keeps growing
Dozens of kids and teenagers from Rio de Janeiro’s Mare neighbourhood gathered last week for the launch of a book in which they show, with their own words and pictures, how violence in their poor, bayside community weighs on their young lives.
The book, titled “I Was Supposed to Be at School,” features drawings and testimonies collected from youngsters aged between five and 17.
All too often, when Rio state’s military police conduct operations and face off with local drug traffickers, class is cancelled and they take shelter behind washing machines, under their beds or far from windows that a stray bullet might shatter.
“Some policemen invade our houses. They turn things upside down, they attack, they even steal our food,” according to one child’s account in the book, which launched Monday.
“Sometimes police fire at children, too,” another account says, going on to reference 14-year-old Marcus Vinícius da Silva, whose death in 2018 sparked outrage and protests. Residents say police shot him in the back as he left home for class, but the case remains unsolved and sealed by Rio police.
The book’s phrases came directly from the youngsters and collected in partnership with non-profit Redes da Mare, according to creator Isabel Malzoni. The book doesn’t list the names of the children involved.
The project’s trigger was a surge of police raids in 2019, the year Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president and ally Wilson Witzel became Rio’s governor, after both campaigned with pledges to give police carteblanche to use lethal force against criminals. During that year, Mare saw 41 police operations resulting in 42 deaths and 35 days without school for local children, according to the state public defender’s office.
Those figures edged down in 2023, the first year in office for current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gov. Cláudio Castro: 27 police operations, 39 deaths and 15 days without school.
Rio state police have repeatedly said in the past that any operations in Mare and other favelas are aimed at stopping criminal activity. But the list of deaths from stray bullets continues to grow.
The book also contains some hope for better days. “I also think of EVERYTHING that could be different,” one child is quoted as saying, next to a drawing of a calm day at Mare, with a rainbow. “Tomorrow, if it is a day of peace, I am going to school.”