Seti and the UEL rectory will have to explain attacks on a student on campus

The state deputy Fabio Oliveira (Podemos) asked the rectory of the State University of Londrina (UEL) and the State Secretariat for Science, Technology and Higher Education (Seti) about the verbal and physical attacks suffered by the student Gabriel Bertolucci when trying to participate in a meeting of the UEL Central Student Directory (DCE) on October 16th and 17th.

In requests, sent to the dean of UEL, professor Marta Regina Gimenez Favaroand to the head of Seti, secretary Aldo Nelson Bona, the deputy requests a detail of the actions taken by both institutions regarding the attacks. Oliveira also requires “the adoption of appropriate measures to ensure the right to physical integrity and freedom of opinion and expression of the attacked student, including their participation in deliberations that should take place in a democratic and orderly manner”.

Finally, the Podemos deputy also requires “the identification and accountability of those involved, be they students, citizens who followed the work and public agents who worked or should work in the management of the institution”. The attacks were filmed and posted on Bertolucci’s Instagram profile, and could help both Seti and UEL identify the attackers.

Attacks on the student were allegedly motivated by videos showing the precarious state of the UEL DCE

The attacks were allegedly motivated by videos recorded by Bertolucci, state coordinator of Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL) and third-year economics student at UEL, in which he shows the precarious state of two DCE facilities, one on campus and the other in the center from London. In an official note sent to the press, the university management states that the DCE headquarters on campus was closed in July 2021, after an inspection by the Campus City Hall (PCU) and issuance of a report by the engineering team, and informs that the building was cleaned in September, after the images produced by the student were broadcast.

In the video, Bertolucci is called a “fascist” by several people present at the meeting. He had his backpack torn and was prevented from speaking during the meeting, in which the reopening of the DCE headquarters was being discussed. “We want to open a ticket, return the DCE to the students. I entered the auditorium, sat down, didn’t provoke anyone. They started calling me a fascist, saying they would ‘pick me up in the street’, they even threw orange on my head. They were angry because we managed to close a smoke trap inside the largest state university in Paraná after the repercussion of the video,” the student told Gazeta do Povo.