In Brazil, the emotion after the death of a black man killed by supermarket security guards
Relatives of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas during his funeral on November 21 in Porto Alegre.
REUTERS - DIEGO VARA
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Brazil is in shock after the death of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, a black customer in a supermarket beaten to death by two security guards on Thursday evening.
The victim's funeral took place on Saturday, November 21.
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With our correspondent in Sao Paulo,
Martin Bernard
Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas' funeral was dominated by emotion and anger on Saturday in Porto Alegre.
Emotion of the family, first of all: the father of the victim wanted racism to become a topic of debate on the benches of the school in a country where a black man is murdered every 23 minutes.
Anger of the victim's daughter also against the brutality of the guards, treated as "
garbage
".
Anger also of a relative, who is indignant that an employee of the supermarket did nothing to prevent this murder.
New events
The 40-year-old black Brazilian died last Thursday after being severely beaten by white security guards at a Carrefour supermarket.
According to the first elements of the investigation, he was punched for more than five minutes before being immobilized by his attackers and dying of suffocation.
New solidarity demonstrations took place on Saturday in several cities.
In Sao Paulo, the symbol phrase “Black lives matter” was painted in giant letters on a major thoroughfare in the city.
Bolsonaro refuses to hear about racism
The black American movement "Black Lives Matter" has supported the Brazilian movement.
But for the Brazilian president and vice-president, racism does not exist in Brazil.
On Saturday, at the start of his speech at the virtual summit of the G20, President Jair Bolsonaro once again ignored the serious problems of structural racism that undermine Brazil, highlighting the "
miscegenation
" of the country and lambasting "
those who want to sow the conflict and discord
”by attempting to“
import
”into his country
racial“
tensions
”“
which are not part of its history
”.
"
As a man and as a president, I see everyone of the same color: green and yellow (the colors of the flag of Brazil)
", he also said, reiterating remarks broadcast the day before on Twitter, when he said he was "
color blind
".
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