In the center of the largest Brazilian city, horror reigns – 04/26/2023 – Maria Hermínia Tavares

On Sunday (4/23), the sociologist and writer José Henrique Bortoluci published a strong exhortation article in this Folha, under the title “It is necessary to narrate the horror”.

The professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation was referring to the need to talk about the political, social and civilizing degradation promoted by Jair Bolsonaro and his accomplices, with thousands of preventable deaths during the pandemic; routine incentivized attacks against indigenous populations; deaths caused by the ease with which civilians gained access to firearms; uninhibited distillation of political hatred via social media.

Bortoluci is right to warn of the harmful effects of silence about this recent past that reveals the worst that exists among Brazilians. It is true that the extreme right-wing president —who narrowly missed being re-elected, by the way—was largely responsible for deepening the country’s social horrors. But he didn’t create them overnight: in addition to many, they are stubborn.

Certainly the most scandalous thing is in the crowds that live in the streets of the main cities, incorporated into the landscape by those who pass by trying not to see them and subjected by governments to the most disastrous experiments in public policies.

According to Ipea (Institute for Applied Economic Research), at least 280,000 Brazilians live on the streets —one from Governador Valadares (MG). The have-nothing grew by more than 200% between 2012 and 2022, or 20 times the increase in the general population over the period. Such swelling is directly related to the prolonged economic crisis of the last decade and the explosion of the drug market.

It is astonishing: only at the end of the first decade of this century did Brazil define a course of action to deal with the tragedy, giving rise to the so-called National Policy for the Homeless Population (PNPR), in 2009. It comprises an updated view of inclusion and guarantee of rights, in addition to establishing programs and forms of cooperation between the federal government and municipalities. The following year, the target audience was incorporated into the Single Registry that gives access to Bolsa Família; in 2011, the doors of SUS were opened.

In São Paulo, where it is estimated that there are 48,000 homeless people, programs and equipment created within the scope of the PNPR, or at the initiative of the state and municipality, suffer from chronic policy changes —not infrequently inspired by inhuman views of how deal with the problem. Swept from one place to another, people are forced to dismantle their sleeping tents each morning, while squares are fenced off with bars.

In the center of the largest Brazilian city, horror reigns, all the time, in plain sight.

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