Activists denounce cover-up of cold-related deaths in São Paulo's capital.
Two men were found dead in Praça da Sé, one near the Caixa Econômica bank and the other near the cathedral steps. A third man was seen in Praça da Liberdade.
By Valéria Jurado, in Jornalistas Livres (Free Journalists). Two strong cold waves hit São Paulo in recent weeks. Unlike other critical periods of low temperatures, however, there have been no officially recorded deaths of homeless people due to the weather conditions. But this may just be a cover-up tactic by the authorities to conceal the deaths. We have received news and have images of at least three deaths in recent days, all in Praça da Sé and Praça da Liberdade. However, the SMADS – Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance and Development – does not confirm any of them.
As a rule, since July 2021, when 16 homeless men died, mostly in the Praça Princesa Isabel/Cracolândia area (formerly known as the "flux"), the city government has consistently stated that the person "died of heart failure and not from the cold, after all, they were addicts." However, the first organ to fail in death caused by the cold is the heart, according to doctors. Furthermore, how can the city government claim that all of them were drug addicts? Where are the autopsy reports? As a volunteer in 2021, I witnessed three people dead from the cold, stiff as blocks of ice, in Praça Princesa Isabel. The cause of death was obvious, and it's the same thing we've seen in recent days.
How does the "assistance" to these people work today? At 8 a.m., "young people in green vests and clipboards" arrive at the square. They wake everyone sleeping there under the "rat skin" blankets, the same ones distributed by SMADS (Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance and Development), the same ones that the Military Police and the Municipal Guard rub in the open air or in the ditch to wet and beat the homeless, since they cause a lot of pain and don't leave marks. The "rat skin" blankets also serve to camouflage the situation. Due to their gray color, they blend in with the concrete landscape and give the false impression that they are garbage and that there aren't thousands of abandoned human beings underneath, a tactic to hide the invisible.
Read the full text at Free Journalists
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