The Campaign to Liberate Rafael Braga calls on collectives, popular movements and organizations from around the world to join us at the International Campaign for Freedom of Rafael Braga.
This is a callout to organise activities throughout Brazil and abroad during November 2016 in order to publicize the case of Rafael and discuss topics such as racism, murder of Black people, mass incarceration, criminal selectivity, anticárcere fight etc. The activities can be varied in character: cultural, acts, tables, debates, collage, stencil, propaganda, academic and others. We ask that groups and / or individuals who are organising something send us details on FORM (https://goo.gl/forms/03jxAYsTCsdZGmeT2) so we can publicize and set up a schedule. In addition to activities, you can also support the campaign by sending photos with posters in support of Rafael Braga or solidarity notes signed by collectives.
Facebook: Liberdade Para Rafael Braga Vieira
Rafael is a young poor Black man, who in June 2013 was working collecting material for recycling in the streets of the center of Rio de Janeiro. He lived on the streets in order to save money the money it would cost to go home, returning only occasionally to his home in Vila Cruzeiro. However, on 20 June, his routine changed.
That day happened in Rio de Janeiro most of the demonstrations that occurred at the time against the increase in bus fares. Rafael, then 25, was arrested when he was on his way back to an abandoned mansion where sometimes slept. Rafael did not participate in the demonstration and was carrying two plastic bottles, a Pine Sol and another disinfectant. At the police station, the police officers who arrested him had open bottles and rags. He was accused of carrying explosive material, which would be Molotov cocktails. He was sentenced to five years and two months imprisonment. On 1 December 2015, he progressed to the open system and out of prison, being monitored by an ankle bracelet.
Moving back to his family in Vila Cruzeiro on January 12, 2016, Rafael went out in the morning to go to the bakery at the request of his mother, Dona Adriana, and the road was approached by UPP officers there. The PMs said he was involved in trafficking and asked him to give information and assume that it was criminal. He was beaten on the way to the police station, including being threatened with rape if he did not admit that he was involved in trafficking. He had 0.6g of marijuana, cocaine and 9,3g of a firecracker planted on him. Thus, since January Rafael has been incarcerated for drug trafficking, association for trafficking and collaboration with trafficking.
Rafael Braga was arrested and convicted in 2013 even without being a protester. He was arrested for being Black and poor. As it is not a militant, no mobilization occurred at the time of his arrest and he was quickly tried and convicted. Even after his conviction, mobilizations by Rafael Braga never got as much attention as the struggles for liberation of other prisoners of the demonstrations of 2013 and 2014. Rafael is a symbol of criminal selectivity and structural racism that pervades Brazilian justice. Living in a militarized area, Rafael was approached and accused of trafficking. The forged testing kit for drugs and explosives which was used to incriminate Rafael is commonly used in slums and outlying areas. The war on drugs keeps claiming new victims every day, wiping out Black people and increasgin mass incarceration.
Liberate Rafael Braga!
ABC Rio de Janeiro: https://cnario.noblogs.org/