The political tragedy in Petrópolis

Petrópolis, the sleepless, muddy city, covered in material debris and mangled human bodies, is once again destroyed by the negligence of rulers at all levels of government, by the crude amateurism of administrators, and above all by the voracity of capitalism that extends its tentacles to the natural resources that belong, by inalienable human right, to all living beings that inhabit this planet.

Ten years ago, the mountainous region suffered the greatest disaster The country's climate crisis. There were more than 800 deaths in the region. Since then, climate monitoring agencies and organizations studying the soil, the climate, the threats arising from global warming, and the ongoing destruction of the entire environment have been created.

The National Center for Monitoring and Alerting of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), an agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology, was created. Similar bodies were established in state and municipal governments, climate monitoring methodologies and support post systems were implemented, and training was provided to community leaders to improve prevention and assistance to the population living in at-risk areas.

But there lies the root of the problem: are we going to trivialize the fact that the population lives indefinitely in at-risk areas? What percentage of the population lives in at-risk areas? According to CEMADEN, approximately five hundred thousand people lived in at-risk areas in the mountainous region of the state of Rio de Janeiro in 2012. This number has only increased with the impoverishment of the working class and the cruel privatization of essential services such as water supply.

Housing programs were paralyzed after the 2016 coup against the government that dared to include the people in the budget. Land intended for the construction of low-income housing complexes was appropriated by construction companies that took advantage of the low costs to profit more and more. The housing complexes that were under construction to accommodate the victims of 2011 took ten years to be delivered to residents in terrible safety conditions, always on the eve of local elections. They no longer serve as safe homes; the water, sewage, and energy infrastructure has been neglected – after all, construction for the poor, as we well know, doesn't even need to follow engineering manuals. 

The companies that are now "charitably" donating water to the survivors of the current tragedy are the same ones that privatize rivers, springs, and water sources, denying access to these same affected families. Those who live in Petrópolis cannot ignore the plight of low-income families constantly making pilgrimages to the concessionaires' offices, trying to negotiate the indecent, immoral, and fraudulent payments they are being forced to make.

The security forces that are currently showing solidarity with the impoverished families grieving the loss of their children buried under the rubble are the same forces that abuse their positions, shooting at young people – perhaps the children who survive the tragedy – and labeling them as suspects, criminals, and drug dealers. 

The merchants and companies that today donate food and (old) clothing to the homeless will launch an overt campaign against any labor rights for these same people, who may even be their own informal "employees" and are mistreated by their bosses.

The charitable religious figures who are giving testimonies to the press asking for protection from their ungrateful gods and declaring that "doing good feels good," will discriminate against survivors who need housing assistance, gas assistance, and transportation assistance to reach the homes of middle-class people who don't even offer a piece of bread during their contracted workday as domestic servants. They will talk about meritocracy, personal investment, and overcoming adversity.

The imperial family, believe it or not, there is an imperial family in the Federative Republic of Brazil, living at our expense. Everyone knows it. It's in the 1988 Federal Constitution. The population periodically organizes to stop this outrageous practice of paying royalties to princes who don't exist. They are monarchists, they are the darlings of the vile neoliberalism that preaches the end of the State, as long as they can continue living off it, they are political allies of the fascists in power. Every now and then, citizens of Petrópolis manage to sensitize some parliamentarian, but magically, the initiatives disappear in the Municipal Chambers and the Federal Congress.

The leaders who today promise the moon and the stars – tragedy in an election year can improve candidates' approval ratings – will not fulfill their eternal and false promises. One can already find, walking among the rubble, candidates disguised as good Samaritans registering the unfortunate who lost everything, despite having nothing, to receive a pittance in the form of "social rent," a bogus mountain scheme that has fooled gullible people ever since the rains began in the city. These leaders and any mediocre administrative teams cut rights, cut budgets even for food for school-age children, they close schools, they close schools, they close schools, they close schools.

International NGOs will arrive here, with vast resources, convincing well-intentioned but unsuspecting citizens that it is necessary for the poor to have a job. A subordinate and submissive job. And many will help in this redemptive mission. 

The press, the same press that devalues ​​the Brazilian people, that offers the personal success of millionaires as the only respectable destiny. Those TV channels that achieve spectacular ratings with crimes, femicides, and family feuds, that hypnotize the population with mind-numbing programming; the religious outlets that daily exorcise demons from the bodies of poor workers who use alcohol or drugs to endure the unbearable lives they lead. These media outlets that dominate the people are today in every scene of the tragedy, offering condolences to the bereaved families. People who, humiliated and offended, stand in front of the cameras to see themselves on TV.

I accuse this hypocritical society of destroying humanity and the environment, of promoting mediocrity, passivity, the subjugation of the people, and of letting the system's disposable people die.

We need to rally the outraged, the indignant, the spoilsports of these pathetic scenes, to fight for the necessary and urgent transformation. There is no convenient time, no appropriate moment, no possible complacency to postpone the denunciations. There are those responsible for the tragedies. They need to be named.