We have to talk about the hatred that spreads throughout Brazil.
A teacher from the public school of Espírito Santo, Maria da Penha Baths, known as Peinha, filled the walls of the Primo Bitti school with poetry. She wanted to give the students of that school in Aracruz some of the love she had raised her three children with. The oldest, 17 years old. Professor Cybelle Bezerra came from Pernambuco and had been in Aracruz for five months.
Flavia Amoss Merçon Leonardo, the other teacher, also tried to improve Brazil outside of school. She lived in the region of the sources of the river Doce, seriously affected by the tragedy of Vale a Mariana (MG). She joined the MAB (Movement of People Affected by Dams) to guarantee the rights of the residents. Selena Sagrillo was just 12 years old. I could be a teacher, a doctor, a dancer.
Selena’s mother Thais moved the whole country when she summed up what happened on November 25 last Friday. “My daughter has always been light and loving; and I have lost my daughter to hate.”
The 16-year-old shooter from Aracruz was arrested at his home. He coldly confirmed the police allegations in front of his parents. On Friday he wore a camouflage uniform, on which he sewed a swastika, a Nazi symbol. He took two pistols and the car of his father, a military policeman, and headed for the planned massacre. A former student of Primo Bitti, he entered the staff room and fired at random. I told the deputy I didn’t have a fixed target.
The Nazi acted like this: only with a lot of hatred for the world. He moved from Primo Bitti to another school, Centro Educacional Praia do Coqueiral, where he ended Selena’s life and Thais’ dreams. In that school, another 14-year-old girl was struck, who was struggling to survive until Monday night: Thaís Pessoti da Silva, whose picture illustrates this article, hospitalized in intensive care at a local hospital in very serious conditions.
Last week, Terra exclusively released a report showing the appalling growth of Nazism on the Brazilian Internet. In just one year, the number of cells held by hate groups more than doubled. There are 1,117 cells, reaching nearly 300 municipalities, according to researcher Adriana Dias (Fiocruz).
Messaging apps like Telegram proliferate files with Nazi literature. A few days ago, one of these Nazi groups was defeated in Santa Catarina. One of the prisoners was already wearing an electronic ankle bracelet as he was accused of the death of a Jew. Responding to a murder case was not an impediment to committing the crime of apology for Nazism. Characteristic of these groups is not only violence, but the certainty of impunity.
This hate speech fuels organized groups and the so-called lone wolves, people who, individually, decide to promote attacks and massacres. Whether teenage Aracruz performed like a lone wolf remains to be seen. It’s too early to rule out any possibility. The only certainty is that hatred killed Selena, Peinha, Flávia and Cybelle. Four women. Hatred of women, by the way, is also a feature of these movements.
Brazil, in recent years, has begun to collect these attacks in schools. Twelve years ago, a former student murdered 12 children and teenagers at a school in Realengo, Rio. Of the 12 victims, 10 were women. The students said the sniper aimed at their heads and the boys’ bodies.
In 2019, in Suzano (SP), two young men entered a school and killed seven people with a knife, firearm and even archery equipment. They had earlier killed the uncle of one of their own. There were five boys up to the age of 15 and two school employees. The two committed suicide when they were surrounded by police.
There have been two more attacks on schools this year alone. One in Barreiras (BA), where the killer killed a girl, and another one in Sobral (CE), where the weapon used by the teenager who committed the crime was registered in the name of a CAC (Hunters, Shooters and collectors). Last July, the number of weapons in the hands of the CAC reached 1 million, almost double the number recorded in 2018, before the Bolsonaro government.
We can no longer treat every school attack as if it were a coincidence. It is a disease that is spreading, fueled by incitement to hatred, political violence and the cult of guns. Brazil has swept a lot of dirt under the carpet: gender violence, racism, violations of all kinds of the precepts of democracy. You can no longer disguise this wound. It’s as an American saying has been saying for more than a century: sunlight is the best disinfectant.
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Source: Terra
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
