Activist, lawyer groups map Brazil election violence

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SAO PAULO, Oct 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Liberal activist groups and a
collective of human rights lawyers are mapping politically-motivated murders
and other attacks in Brazil, blaming leading, far-right candidate Jair
Bolsonaro’s incendiary statements for the violence.

Sociologist and publisher Haroldo Ceravolo has pinpointed 120 reported
attacks, including four murders, on his political violence map since the
start of October.

The cases include political vandalism, such as several accounts of
swastikas painted on buildings.

The mapping “shows a very bad situation, a very big repertoire of violent
acts, whether symbolic or real, physical, occurring across the country and
related to the discourse of hate of Bolsonaro,” he told AFP.

Bolsonaro is favored to win the October 28 presidential polls.

Human rights lawyers in Sao Paulo meanwhile launched a website on Friday
where victims can report attacks and receive legal and psychological support.

“We can take these cases to international forums, especially the Inter-
American Commission of Human Rights, which already expressed concern with
what is happening in Brazil,” said Renan Quinalha, a law lecturer and former
official at the state-level commission of inquiry into the military
dictatorship.

Meanwhile, the freedom of information group Open Knowledge has entered
information on around 60 attacks on people into a database called Victims of
Intolerance.

The overwhelming majority points to culprits who explicitly link their
support of Bolsonaro to their acts.

Both databases use media reports as their main source and don’t
independently verify the cases. But they say the results indicate a worrying
trend in society.

“We aren’t living the democracy party, as Brazilians like to say. We are
living almost barbarism,” said Eduardo Cuducos, who runs the Victims of
Intolerance database.

The latest polls suggest Bolsonaro has 59 percent voter support, against
his leftist rival Fernando Haddad’s 41 percent.

The country would feel the effects beyond the vote, said rights lawyer
Quinalha.

“This is something that tends to continue, a polarization that is
happening in Brazil today with extreme violence and won’t end after October
28, because this culture of violence, of naturalizing violence that is
prevailing will leave very deep roots,” he said.