Benfica Uprising Exposes Human Rights Crisis in Brazil: An Arrow Aimed at the Heart of the Lula Presidency?

Final count is 39 dead after the most recent of Brazil's frequent prison riots.
As in many other arenas, President Lula da Silva has offered strong rhetoric but precious little action regarding crime reduction, an area in which there has been little or no progress under his administration.
Many prisoners in Brazil continue to endure horrifying conditions including extreme overcrowding, a constant threat of violence, including torture, and minimal or even nonexistent health care.
The Brazilian public is increasingly ambivalent toward prisoners' rights in the face of the country's surging crime rate.
Currently, the nation's small police force cannot adequately enforce the rule of law, and a shortage of prison guards hinders the safety and security of Brazil's jails.
The Brazilian Senate recently passed legislation that allows the military to join the police in patrolling the streets in order to deal with runaway crime.
Any long-term dependence on the military for policing cities as well as the countryside could pose a potential threat to human rights and democratic rule.

In 2002, Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva was elected on a platform of exuberant promises of social reform, economic progress and political renovation, and was widely praised as Brazil's first working class president to be elected since the fall of the military dictatorship 20 years ago. While his competition was more experienced, it engendered little enthusiasm in a country buffeted by economic disconformities and high unemployment. Lula, by contrast, inspired a sense of hope in a Brazilian population that was thoroughly fed up with the status quo. Yet, nearly two years later, much of that hope has disintegrated, and Lula's glittering image appears sadly tarnished.

Crime Remains Unabated

One of the Lula administration's most notable failures has been in the area of crime and human rights. Shortly after his election, Lula promised to "win the war against organized crime and drug trafficking," yet Brazil continues to hold the second highest murder rate in the world and the sprawling favelas surrounding Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo continue to be wracked by gang violence on a daily basis. Human rights abuses in prisons are as prevalent as ever. For a president elected by the poor, Lula has done virtually nothing to enhance their safety and security: it is the poverty-stricken who are victims of the majority of the violence that continues to consume Brazil. Informed Brazilians view this epidemic of violence as regressive and a threat the consolidation of Brazilian democracy. Abroad, while Lula is fighting for more equitable free trade agreements and stronger international ties, Brazil's abysmal record on crime is causing him to increasingly lose prestige among foreign leaders.

Yet while the international community continues to reel from the shock of Iraq's Abu Ghraib, little attention has been given to the degrading, inhumane conditions that plague almost all of the prisons in one of Latin America's largest and most crime-ridden countries: Brazil. These conditions were brought to the fore on May 30, when an uprising erupted in the Rio de Janeiro-situated prison, Benfica. When the riot was finally suppressed on June 1, 17 inmates were missing, while 38 inmates and 1 guard had died. Many bodies were badly mutilated, several of which were decapitated. A subsequent search of the prison exposed the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions that the prisoners had been enduring. Although Brazil has a notorious record of wretched prison conditions and frequent prison riots, the May 30 uprising was the bloodiest in over a decade.

Brazil's rapidly rising crime rate has caused the number of inmates being housed to swell far beyond the capacity of its prison system; it was made to hold 180,000 inmates and now has expanded to accommodate 285,000. The country's devastating crime rate has led many Brazilians to favor a harsh crackdown on anti-social behavior. A financially-strapped and chaotically administered federal government and an incompetent, corrupt police force have left Brazil hard pressed for a solution. Thus it has opted to take the dangerous step of implementing military collaboration in law enforcement, which critics fear could jeopardize Brazil's already fragile democracy.

Repeating History

Brazil's record of protecting incarcerate prisoners' human rights is nothing short of deplorable. One of the main problems is immense cell-block overcrowding. Grossly inadequate sanitation, limited access to health services, an insufficient number of guards and persistent use of torture and other forms of violence also contributes to frequent prison mayhem.