FIFA CORRUPTION IN BRAZIL TURNS INTO LACK OF DEMOCRACY

FIFA CORRUPTION IN BRAZIL TURNED INTO LACK OF DEMOCRACY

Yesterday (28/05/2015), families were evicted from their homes in the Favela Metro Mangueira in Rio de Janeiro, on the vicinity to Maracanã Stadium, site of the 2014 World Cup final. This is part of a much bigger problem, considering the expelling of poor families, from favelas close to the FIFA World Cup (WC) sites, affected more then 200,000 people [1].

Many Brazilians tried to denounce the FIFA bribery previous to the World Cup, but the corruption also affected the police and the judicial system. Thus, the only people prosecuted in Brazil because of the WC were the protesters, who went to the streets saying that the event would be a bribery fiasco [2].

Igor Mendes, a Geography student of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), was arrested last year for participating in a cultural event which denounced the crimes committed during the WC and attacks against teachers by the Riot Police. There are also two women being hunted by police in the same case. In total, 23 people have been accused of planning violent protests during the WC. Thus, the crime only happened in those students minds, if it happened at all.

Yesterday, once again the students went to help people evicted from their homes, but the Military Police violently expelled them back to the University. The students run back, but were surprised with attacks by the University Security, who did not want them to find shelter inside the University.

These events remind us that, just in 1989, Brazil could write a democratic constitution, after 20 years of military dictatorship. Now, we are facing the same problems from those times: prison of protesters and universities invaded by the police.

Together with the corrupted police, the Brazilian media, specially Globo channel, was reporting the events as the students wanted to break the University building for no reason. The channel hide, however, that the austerity plans for Rio de Janeiro State included cuttings in the University budget. The austerity plans turned into stop paying the janitors who went into strike. However, the response by the University was that the students should help with cleaning [3].

There is an explanation for the attempt by Brazilian to manufacture a consent on supposed benefits from the FIFA WC. The media avoids covering the problems because they were the biggest beneficiaries of the event, with advertisement contracts of many billions of dollars. For instance, just Globo made around $1.5 billion [4].

During the FIFA event in Brazil, the Globo News channel was trying to convince the public about the WC legacy [5]. All things considered, now we realize the WC left us with more corruption, police violence and political prosecution.

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By Gustavo Dopcke | Coletivo Mariachi
Photo by Marcela Tagliaferri

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- Video about the Favela Metro Mangueira eviction in 2014, before the World Cup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vgP9DJvWcM

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/06/18/brazil-forcibly-displaced-thousands-of-people-to-make-way-for-the-world-cup/
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/14/brazil-protests-crackdown-arrests-online-media

[3] http://educacao.uol.com.br/noticias/2015/05/13/com-funcionarios-em-greve-alunos-e-professores-limpam-salas-na-uerj.htm

[4] http://www.franciscocastro.com.br/blog/?p=11490
[5] http://g1.globo.com/globo-news/noticia/2012/12/maior-legado-de-copa-e-olimpiadas-e-cultural-afirma-especialista.html