Last month, while the world’s attention turned to FTAA protesters in Quebec City, another battle was being waged in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While significantly smaller in size, the Brazilian anti-FTAA demonstration was met with brutally violent repression. Now many participants, many of whom were seriously beaten and injured, are seeking justice and organizing a campaign denouncing the police brutality they faced.

The World Outside Quebec – Part II: Brazilian A20 Demonstrators Mobilize Against Police Violence in Sao Paulo.

Last month, while the world’s attention turned to FTAA protesters in Quebec City, another battle was being waged in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While significantly smaller in size, the Brazilian anti-FTAA demonstration was met with brutally violent repression. Now many participants, many of whom were seriously beaten and injured, are seeking justice and organizing a campaign denouncing the police brutality they faced.

A. What Happened

On Friday, April 20, as the dreaded wall was coming down in Quebec City, over 1500 activists and students gathered in downtown Sao Paulo’s financial center, Avenida Paulista, to demonstrate their rejection of Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The day marked by activists as A20 – Day of Global Action Against Capitalism, was an international day of solidarity against the meeting of Western leaders to negotiate the FTAA at the 3rd Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

Though protest actions took place internationally, none were met with the level of violence encountered by protestors in Brazil.

The demonstration began peacefully, with street theater and chanting. The large group made its way along Avenida Paulista, sticking mainly to the sidewalk as to avoid blocking traffic and provoking police reaction. Their final destination was Brazil’s Central Bank, where protesters hoped to gain an audience with the bank’s president and present him with a giant 2 by 3 meter letter stating their ardent rejection of Brazil’s participation in the FTAA.

Without provocation, the military police present, who had illegally removed their identification badges, launched a violent attack on the unarmed demonstrators. The crowd was repeatedly dispersed with tear gas and untamed beatings.

As later reported in the Brazilian magazine, Caros Amigos, police denied committing abuses and attributed the use of violence to the “provocation of punks