The election campaign in Brazil is stained with blood again. A political debate led to a murder in a rural area of Mato Grosso state, in the interior of the country. According to information from civilian police collected by the local press, Rafael Silva de Oliveira, 24, and a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro, stabbed Benedetto Cardoso dos Santos, 44, to death and a follower of Lula da Silva, a heated debate over politics spiraled out of control last Wednesday. The police have no doubt about Political motive for the assassination.
Civil Police Commissioner Victor Oliveira explained that “what led to the crime was a divergent political opinion: the victim was defending Lula, and the perpetrator was defending Bolsonaro.” It all started on a country farm in Conversa, where the two worked together cutting wood. On the night of September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, which was marked by massive demonstrations in favor of Bolsonaro, the two began arguing, raising the tone until dos Santos punched Oliveira in the face and threatened to kill him. a knife.
The two struggled and the younger one managed to grab the knife. The victim was stabbed in the back, neck and head. He went with his dying fellow to a nearby hut, where he took an ax and killed it with a wound to his neck. Later, the owner of the crime hid the weapons and walked to Conversa in search of a hospital, since he also received head and hand injuries. He said at the hospital that he was robbed, but when he was taken to the police station he ended up confessing to the crime. He was arrested on the spot and now remains in prison for a crime classified in Brazil as “clumsy and cruel murder”.
The judge who decided to keep him in prison, Eduardo Bezerra, emphasized in his decision that intolerance “should not and will not be accepted, with the possibility of a return to the barbarian age.” The Mato Grosso murder is a new episode that heightens fear that violence between supporters of the candidates will witness the October 2 election campaign. If no one gets a majority of valid votes, There will be a second round on October 30.
In July, a Bolsonaro supporter shot and killed the treasurer of the Workers’ Party (PT) during his birthday party, which was his main theme. salute lola. And last week, another political debate in an evangelical church ended with one of the former president’s supporters being shot.
Ex-President Lula tweeted after learning of the new murder that “intolerance took another life. Brazil does not deserve this hatred that has arisen in the country.”
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Lula, the favorite in all pre-election polls, was this Friday at a meeting with evangelicals, in São Gonçalo, on the outskirts of Rio. Shortly before he took to the stage, a quarrel broke out at the gates of the sports center where the event was held. A group of Lula supporters attacked Bolsonarista who passed by his car nearby and, according to eyewitnesses, was provoking protesters. The entire car was lined with a montage showing Lola behind bars. There was a generalized fight, Bolsonarista ended up with part of his face bleeding and the police had to step in.
Tension is felt in the environment. Security measures at Lula’s campaign events, with metal detector arches or high guardrails, have not been seen in other elections. Both Bolsonaro and Lola often wear flak jackets to their rallies. The security of the latter, which was already one of the main problems of his campaign team, was subsequently reinforced Attack on Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
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