SAO PAOLO, Brazil – One of the most iconic figures in the fight for the homeless in the city of São Paulo has been in the spotlight since the beginning of February.
Father Julio Lancelotti learned that the City Hall’s authorities had decided to cover the ground under a bridge with pointed stones, a move to prevent the homeless from sleeping underneath.
A reputed advocate of human rights, father Lancelotti had no second thoughts about the line of action he was about to take.
With a sledgehammer in hand, he took to the streets and positioned himself right below the bridge. And then attacked and destroyed furiously what he considered another serious breach of human rights in a city already plagued by many other violations.
On social media he later posted a picture showing the result of his action and wrote, “Outrage against oppression”.
São Paulo is believed to have more than 24,000 homeless living below the poverty line, according to a 2019 survey. But Human Rights Watch groups say this number skyrocketed during the pandemic.
City Hall authorities said that the decision to put the stones under the bridge was an “isolated action” and had already fired the employee who was in charge of the task.
Father Lancelotti, however, was skeptical about this take on things, and said another similar action had already been done, commenting, “It’s inhuman, looks like a concentration camp.”
By Jorge Valente
In a matter of days, blogger Alexis Dessard raised the municipality along with peoples of all ages in the community, soldiers, labor unions, and other organizations in an all-out effort to clean up the area; Hundreds of people collected more than 4k lbs of litter which had been accumulating for years.