10 years after the 2013 Popular Uprisings,
the revolt could go on trial once again
as activists Fábio Raposo Barbosa and Caio Silva de Souza
go on trial on December 12, 2023.
Both will face a grand jury over the death of cameraman Santiago Andrade,
hit in the head by fireworks in February 2014
while recording clashes between demonstrators and police,
for Bandeirantes Network,
downtown Rio de Janeiro, near Central Station.
Despite what the state, through populist penal punitivism,
and the media, through discursive lynching, have tried to portray,
The madman who set off the murderous bomb
is a know specimen of delinquent
who, as many others, have been spreading terror
infiltrated among demonstrators.
Caio and Fábio could not be held responsible
for Santiago Andrade's death.
The explosion of such a device is not predictable
and, therefore, any notion of intent would have to be ruled out.
If we did ten reconstructions of the incident,
we would get ten different results.
Furthermore, there is no conclusive proof
that the explosive device that hit the journalist
was fired by the demonstrators,
since there are witness reports
that the police themselves were carrying fireworks that day.
The criminalization of Caio and Fábio
is intertwined with the criminalization of the uprising itself.
Why are you being arrested?
A fucking good question.
And was a means for the state
to get people off the streets in Rio de Janeiro.
Until then, demonstrations in the city
had attracted large crowds
and enjoyed great popular support.
Only by fabricating an accusation of murder,
using the terrible and avoidable accident suffered
by journalist Santiago as a pretext,
was it possible to establish a narrative to make
people fear their own capacity for insurrection.
It is worth noting that the Bandeirantes network
sent Santiago into a conflict zone
without any protective gear.
As a result, the trial is still on
without the Bandeirantes network having released
the raw footage that was on the journalist's camera when he was hit.
The network was ordered to hand over that footage,
but only provided a clearly edited portion.
It bears the question:
what is there to hide in this footage?
Why do they want the protesters to be tried
without these images appearing?
We are fighting right now
for the trial to be postponed and not to take place on December 12
without the defense having access to the complete images,
thus guaranteeing Caio and Fábio's full right of defense.
But it is also for their acquittal and for the extinction
of all the fabricated cases involving the protesters
and fighters of the 2013 riots.
We know that the real murderers
continue to kill on a daily basis and in many ways in our society.
We know that this case is just another attempt to block popular self-defense
and create panic, through the exploitation
of death and suffering by the media,
which we know is always conveniently selective,
so that the revolt is taken out of the picture.
To do so is to instrumentalize people's death and pain
for political ends and social control.
There's no genuine respect
for people's suffering when lives are used in this way.
Which is, by the way, capitalism's usual way of proceeding.
The case is reminiscent of what happened in Greece in 2010,
when a fire in a bank during
a protest led to the death of three people,
and this was widely used to turn public opinion against the protests,
empty the streets and create panic among the population,
as if rebelling could lead to more deaths
than the very austerity policies it was intended to stop.
We know, however, that this is not true,
that the banks directly and indirectly
claim many more lives than any fire.
That when the convenient deaths
are not directly manufactured, they are at least facilitated
and exploited to stifle revolts.
The countless daily deaths against which we revolt
continue to be numerous and constant,
being naturalized and taken as inevitable.
Santiago's death was not the only death during the demonstrations.
There were demonstrators thrown off a bridge by the police;
teachers asphyxiated with tear gas.
And it's not as if so many people don't die every day because of police violence;
because of the deteriorating conditions of life;
because of the very reasons that led people to take to the streets to protest.
But the invisible deaths of so many disposable people
were countered by the death of a "good citizen".
Tthe convenient accident was then used as an instrument and bargaining chip
to condemn the revolt.
Young people who take part in demonstrations
are getting paid to incite acts of violence.
We are dealing with criminals.
After Santiago Andrade's death, the Senate decided
to prioritize the Bill that defines what is terrorism in the country.
But those who use people as currency,
who use us as a means to increase their wealth and power,
don't really care about life.
That's why defending Caio and Fábio is defending the possibility of revolt,
it's defending the right to another way of life in the face of capitalism,
which is increasingly taking away the minimum conditions for survival.
It is all of us who are not content with this life without the very minimum,
who are not silent in the face of oppression,
and who are fighting for another free and egalitarian society,
who are also going to trial without the right to a defense.
STOP THE CASE AGAINST CAIO AND FABIO!
NO THERE CAN BE NO TRIAL WITHOUT ACCESS TO THE FOOTAGE!
LIVE ANARCHY!