Unarmed Black Man Killed in Brazil

Protestors took to the streets in Brazil after a security guard killed an unarmed young black man on February 12. Almost a year after the assassination of Marielle Franco, a black woman and political activist who spoke out against police violence, activists within the Brazilian Black Lives Matter movement are pushing for a national discussion on structural racism.

A security guard at a major supermarket chain in Rio de Janeiro immobilized Pedro Gonzaga, a 19-year-old black man, and proceeded to lay on top of him for more than a minute, despite Gonzaga being unconscious. Video evidence shows bystanders yelling at the security guard and telling him to release Gonzaga, who was clearly unconscious and suffering from an overdose-related seizure. Gonzaga died later that day in a hospital. Brazilian activists have noted the stark similarities between the deaths of Gonzaga and Eric Garner, a black American man who died in 2014 after police put him in a chokehold. His dying words, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.

This comes on the heels of several instances of Rio de Janeiro police acting overtly aggressively towards the black community. Earlier in February, an 11-year-old girl was accidentally shot and killed by police. The new governor of Rio, Wilson Witzel, campaigned on a promise to allow police to “shoot to kill.” This policy appears to be in full effect, with police torturing and executing 13 unarmed men who were alleged gang members in a Rio slum earlier this month. These areas are predominantly black. State prosecutors are currently investigating the situation.

Nearly a year ago, Marielle Franco, a black, gay elected official, was assassinated as part of a targeted attack while she sat in her car on the streets of Rio. Franco was an outspoken critic of police brutality and structural racism within Brazil. No one has been charged with her murder, and the perceived absence of a serious police investigation has created public unrest. Supporters of Franco claim that individuals associated with the police were responsible for the assassination, but no solid evidence has been put forward yet. Marielle was one of the 150 people who are killed by Rio de Janeiro police every month.

Black activists throughout Brazil mobilized after the death of Gonzaga to protest police brutality and President Bolsonaro’s strong law and order rhetoric. They marched in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, and Recife. Black Brazilian celebrities began to spread the hashtag #VidasNegrasImportam (Black Lives Matter) in support of this relatively new movement in Brazil. It remains to be seen if this groundswell will translate into any concrete political action by Bolsonaro’s administration.