Children tortured in Brazil

Brazil, 2002. The threshold of the twenty-first century. The location – Teresina, capital of the northern state of Piaui. In a house of correction for young adolescents, a torture scene more befitting of a medieval dungeon. This is the Brazil which Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva hopes to change, if the Brazilian people have the courage and political wisdom to elect him as President next October.

The children were tied to a goal-post and used as football shooting practice by the monitors. The aim of this new version of football, the pride of so many Brazilians who refuse to think about more important issues such as social justice, political rights and a decent standard of living, is simple: to hit the target with the ball. The players – the monitors in the correction centre.

A Human Rights Organisation, the Council for Children’s Rights, denounced the incident and the Federal government has sent a team to investigate. Spokesperson Ana Duarte claims to have photographic evidence of children being tortured, claiming that in some cases, the children were strung up for eleven hours while footballs were shot at their bodies.

Brazil is a second-world country with a first-world people but third-world authorities.

Marcia MIRANDA PRAVDA.Ru BRAZIL