Understand: “Predictable and Announced” Fire in Borba Cotto

Historian Deborah Neves believes the fire at the statue of the character in Sao Paulo this Saturday was caused by the state’s ‘silence’, which does not want to discuss the renaming of streets and public places in the state. Removal of monuments
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Written by Deborah Neves, in The world works – I did an interview four years ago Country When someone takes direct action on monuments in Brazil he talks about reducing the debate to “carnage”. It was only when that bullshit was in Charlottesville that it became the Clan Undercover scene.

Popular movements have been providing lyrics that sooner or later, something like this will happen here.

Last year, Deputy Erica Malunguinho drafted a bill proposing to discuss the renaming of streets and public spaces in the state of Sவோo Paulo, as well as the removal of monuments with a permanent council set up by the state and civil society (PL 404/2020).

I stated a technical opinion that the debate was necessary and suggested holding participatory inventory and public hearings to make the debate as broad and democratic as possible.

Strangely, my opinion, which was only consultative as usual between the legislature and the executive, was for contemporaneous debate, which was guided by votes infiltrated by misunderstandings, mismatches and common sense, and formed a resolution against the bill. ”. A portrait of what led to the 2020 debate – the link between conservatism and the past of violence and slavery that dictated our society since April 22, 1500.

PL did not go ahead with a minor legal issue that could be fixed in the commissions.

In other words, the government washed its hands of it. It did not listen to the formal and necessary, urgent public outcry and did not position itself in the role of mediator owned by the democratic state. He closed his mouth and allowed the boat to run.

Today, after several advance warnings, they set fire to Borba Cato. Predictable, advertised. The silence of the contemporary state has come at a price.

What comes next? Public discussion of “putting out the fire”, with as much punishment as possible? No.

The criminalization of the agenda comes, from time to time comes the cries of the defenders, those who only care about the decay and decay of some public goods, while others are plundered, demolished, abandoned, destroyed or given to private parties with contracts, all with little public interest.

Such as “carnage”, “robbers”. There will be no competent discussion. There will be criminalization.

Public resources that promise to prosecute, prosecute, and punish those responsible for today’s direct action may have been invested for many years to develop an effective public policy.

But what is really important in Brazil is the action of public organizations to punish. The mood of the states dictates the rules and the people never listen to change them. The Brazilian government conducts only one public hearing in accordance with the protocol required by law.

So, no surprise in today’s action. There is no reaction that has already begun. We have a long past ahead of us. Even the 1979 Amnesty Act could not erase that past.

* Deborah Neves is a historian in the Traditional Conservation Division of the Secretariat for Sao Paulo State Culture, which is affiliated with Conte. She is the author of the book “The Sustainability of the Past: The Tradition and Monuments of Dictatorship in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires” (Editora Alameda, 2018). The text was posted on the author’s Facebook.

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