MADRID, 14 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Benny Briolli, councilor of the Niterói City Council, in Rio de Janeiro, the first transsexual and Afro-descendant representative to be elected in this Rio de Janeiro municipality, has had to momentarily leave Brazil due to the death threats received.
His departure from Brazil took place this Thursday after his formation, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) decided that Briolli was safer outside the country, after the threats had lasted for five months, the newspaper reports. ‘O Globe’.
In a statement, the PSOL explained that Briolli “had to temporarily leave Brazil due to threats against his physical integrity,” some of them referring to Ronnie Lessa, one of those responsible for the death of the councilor of the City Council of Rio de Janeiro Marielle Franco, murdered in March 2018.
“The policy of hatred will not win and the State must guarantee the integrity of life and the parliamentary performance of an elected councilwoman,” the president of PSOL in Niterói, Daniel Vieira Nunes, has demanded.
Briolli will be out of Brazil for at least 15 days, reported the PSOL, which has regretted that political violence against elected representatives who come from minorities, as well as human rights defenders, has become a frequent practice in the last years in the country.
“It is not new that black representatives, transvestites, women, LGBTQI and human rights defenders suffer political violence inside and outside the legislative spaces. This practice is the result of the patriarchal and racist structure that dehumanizes our bodies and fears the advance of our political project for the transformation of society, “says the PSOL statement.
The party has reported that it has made the Brazilian state authorities aware of all these threats, but “so far, no effective measures have been taken to protect the life and political rights” of Briolli.
Briolli, who took office in December 2020, was the councilor with the highest number of votes in those local elections. That same year, PSOL federal deputy Talíria Petrone also had to change her state due to the death threats she was receiving.
A couple of months ago, the Brazilian press echoed an episode in the Niterói Municipal Chamber, when Briolli denounced the councilor of the Christian Labor Party Douglas Gomes of transphobia and racism and of being “almost physically attacked”.
According to data from the annual report of the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals of Brazil (Antra), in 2020 there were 175 murders of transgender people, mostly black and poor women.
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