For an end to the case against Caio and Fábio

We publish an unofficial translation of some excerpts of the article published by Movimento Feminino Popular in Brazil:

The Rio de Janeiro state court will hold the next day December 12, the popular jury of activists Fábio Raposo Barbosa and Caio Silva de Souza, accused of qualified intentional homicide and explosion, following the death of cameraman Santiago Andrade in February 2014. Almost ten years ago, Santiago Andrade was accidentally hit in the head by a firecracker while recording the military police aggression against protesters without any type of protective equipment.

That same day, police action in a demonstration caused another death: the street vendor Tasnan Accioly, 65, was run over by a police car while ran from the countless gas and moral effect bombs launched by the Military Police to disperse protesters. It is recorded that Santiago’s death was not the only one in the context of demonstrations: we had protesters thrown from a bridge by the police; we had teachers asphyxiated with gas. There were more than 30 deaths recorded due to of police violence against mobilizations throughout Brazil. Without counting those who were blinded, with fractures and other physical consequences. Furthermore, repression extended to arbitrary arrests and opening investigations against thousands more.

And we emphasize: it’s not as if so many people didn’t die daily by police violence; by the precariousness of life; for the reasons that precisely led the population to take to the streets to protest. But the invisible deaths of so many “killable” people were made invisible. The convenient accident was then used as instrument and currency of exchange so that the revolt became reprehensible. But whoever uses people as currency, who uses us as a means to increase one’s wealth and power, doesn’t really care about the life. That’s why defending Caio and Fábio is defending the possibility of revolt, is to defend the right to another form of life in the face of capitalism that increasingly takes away from us the slightest conditions of survival. They are all those who do not conform to this life without the minimum, which does not remain silent in the face of oppression, and who fight in the most varied ways for another society, free and equality, that we are also going to a popular jury, without the right of defense.

More than a simple defense by Caio and Fábio, what is at stake currently it is the people’s right to fight for their rights, and that this unfair process is not just a way to criminalize these two protesters, but the very right to fight and resist the violence committed by the Old State.

For an End to the Process Against Caio and Fábio!

To struggle is not a crime! Long live the days of people’s struggle 2013/2014!