Favela Naval
31.03.1997 SP/br
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Case Favela Naval
Acts of torture and police lethality on the outskirts of Diadema (SP) gained national repercussions after Rede Globo televised videos of the attacks in prime time.
victims
Mário José Josino
Age
29 anos
occupation
mechanic
Race
Black
City
Diadema, sp
date
07.03.1997
introduction
Over the course of three nights, military police used an anti-drug roadblock to extort and torture residents of the Favela Naval community. Amidst the brutality, one person was executed. An amateur cameraman recorded the assaults, and on March 31, his videos were broadcast on Jornal Nacional by Rede Globo, causing great social commotion, protests from the residents, and denunciations from the black movement.
In response, various political measures related to human rights were enacted. Notably, the Police Ombudsman's Office of the State of São Paulo gained autonomy. The ten police officers involved were investigated, and eight were convicted, three of them for crimes against life. However, the murder convictions were annulled by the Court of Justice, and the new trials were slow to occur. In the end, only "Rambo," the police officer responsible for the fatal victim, served a reduced sentence, after which he ran for city councilor in Diadema.
The Favela Naval case reinforced the need to have a stronger, more institutionalized body of social control of police activity. In this sense, it was fundamental for the government to take the decision to institutionalize the Ombudsman's Office by complementary law (…) today, there are projects in the Legislative Assembly to extinguish the Ombudsman's Office
”Benedito Mariano, Police Ombudsman between 1995-2000.
MOBILIZATION REPORT
Residents of Favela Naval organized several protest acts. Moreover, the black movement organized a demonstration in downtown São Paulo. In it, videos of the murder of Mário Josino and the torture of other residents were displayed on a television truck. "Then I said we're only going to do the following, go there and speak out. Then, put the truck there. The images from Jornal da Globo were repeatedly shown. And... people started stopping, more and more people stopped, and we were there, grabbed a microphone and spoke, right, that a family man had been murdered because he was black, because the territory was a territory violated at any and all times etc. etc. And we stayed there. And they did, I think, about two hours of demonstration" – Regina Lúcia dos Santos, founding activist of the Unified Black Movement.
Until 2017, Mário's mother had not received the state compensation to which she is entitled and was experiencing financial difficulties.
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