The cartoon doesn't forgive.

By Miguel Paiva, for Journalists for Democracy - It may seem disproportionate, but it's not the first time a cartoon has bothered an authoritarian regime as much as the one by my friend and partner Aroeira bothered the reactionaries of this government. Humorous drawings, or cartoons, emerged precisely to criticize the powerful. Whether or not using caricature as a tool, cartoons have always sought to reveal the other side of things, defend the interests of the oppressed, and try to show that the emperor has no clothes. 

A political cartoon is rarely in favor of any particular regime. Its power comes from the shameless exposure of the oppressor's weaknesses. Caricature helps by amplifying the characteristic traits of those in power, and it doesn't hide its style, not even in its features.

The first magazines that emerged in Brazil created this atmosphere of humorous denunciation. O Malho was one of them. Barão de Itararé, with his caustic humor, didn't draw, but his phrases functioned as powerful cartoons. The vaccination campaign that accompanied Mayor Pereira Passos' urban reform in Rio de Janeiro was the target of merciless cartoons produced by illustrators of the time.

Back in the days of Pasquim, during the military dictatorship, cartoons and humorous pieces served to inform readers about what was actually happening in the country. It worked so well that they ended up facing rigorous censorship and being arrested. The most curious thing is that the military regime imposed such censorship that not even the arrest of the editorial staff could be reported. All because of a cartoon published in the newspaper, drawn by Jaguar, that mocked the Cry of Ipiranga. For me, it was just a pretext. They really wanted to put the gang in jail... And they succeeded. Those people bothered the regime.

I worked all these years at Pasquim and it was there that I started to have this feeling that I had the other day with the cartoon by dear Aroeira. When this happens and a cartoon becomes news, it's because things aren't going well. It happened during the dictatorship and it's happening now. 

I know times have changed. Nothing is as it once was, but you never know. The historical and political distortions remain the same. It seems that right-wing regimes have resurfaced to catch their breath and are once again threatening us. 

The episode involving the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, in which cartoonists and editors were killed by Islamic extremists, including the great Wolinski, ends up becoming a recurring theme in our minds. We would never have expected such an event to happen. But it did, and it ended up revealing that injustice, violence, and religious intolerance exist everywhere in the world. All it takes is discomfort for humor to become a target. 

The attack on Porta dos Fundos places television humor in the same category of threat to tyrants. It was the target of a cowardly and unjustified right-wing attack that was never seriously investigated. Now, the case of Aroeira and the other cartoonists from Folha, who are also being targeted by the Public Prosecutor's Office because they criticized police violence, is raising alarm bells.

Should we be worried? 

We end up being active witnesses to a history told by people who don't deserve that role. With the ability of graphic humor to summarize an injustice or lie with a symbol or image, the cartoon often ends up being a more effective weapon than a written analysis of the country's political situation. 

Both need to exist. One denounces, the other analyzes and delves deeper, and together they try to build a more just future. It's difficult. We cartoonists have a restless pencil in our hands that can't be stopped. If it breaks, we sharpen it and continue. The drawing doesn't forgive, it denounces, and humor is complicit; it welcomes and shares. That's it.