About History and forgiveness

Boa Vista - A startling and unequivocal historical fact: the neo-fascist cycle started in Brazil in 2019 was only possible with the decisive help of 100 million collaborators. It is a surprising and cruel number, but it is there, materially proven. Two years after ignoring the racist discourse, the growing femicide, the massacres of teenagers, the invasions of indigenous lands and the condition of an international pariah, the country despairs because the pandemic has already wiped out a population equal to that of the state of Roraima. In this June 2021, when I turn 50 and two thousand people suffocate to death daily, repentant collaborationists try to glue millions of pieces of the broken nation, in search of a redemption that will not come. They want to move on, but they ask for too much. Brazil has never debated the slavery that continued into the 20th century or the permanent indigenous genocide; it did not investigate the crimes, torture, disappearances and deaths of military governments. Without clarifying past horrors, we will not be able to deal with everyday horrors. Forgiving, on the other hand, is a function that falls to the deities, always willing to help afflicted souls and repent of their atrocious crimes. As for me, poor and insignificant insurgent, I lack the divine haughtiness to forgive collaborators and Nazis. We don't sit at the same table.