"Rolezinho" and the Maranhão prison massacre

Warning in Iguatemi Shopping in a high class
neighborhood: protesters will bi fined 

The past week was a reminder of the immense inequalities existent still in Brazil -- despite the recent advances in income distribution and the low unemployment in the country. In São Paulo the "rolezinhos" -- Facebook events that started being created last december by periphery teenagers set to take place in big shopping centers intended to protest, create chaos and some level of theft -- aroused a reaction from the companies. After some discussion whether it would be legal to oppress the protesters, finally the main shopping centers were granted a justice injunction that allowed them to make a security check in every visitor and also the police to curb the events and fine in 10,000 Brazilian reals whoever is joining the movement. 

In the periphery slang "rolezinho" could be translated as a small hang out, which is ironic since one of the first rolezinhos gathered more than 6 thousand people in the Itaquera Shopping in the east zone of São Paulo. For me, this phenomenon is really interesting as it points out that social media is becoming a sort of political arm also for youngsters from the periphery, and not only the middle class. 

A worst reminder of how deep and critical is the current situation occurred on tuesdeay, when Folha de S. Paulo website published a video in which  three prisoners were decapitated (the scenes are extremely violent) int the Pedrinhas prison, located in the  Maranhão state, North of Brazil. Since december, 62 prisoners were killed in the institution, mainly in protests concerning the overpopulation of the prison. 

This instantly opened up a discussion about Brazil's prison system. The federal government immediately launched a plan to move prisoners and try to revert the crisis.  This also poses a doubts  about the future alliances for the election since Maranhão is basically a feud from the Sarney family (José Sarney, a former Brazil's president,  is a senator from the neighbor Amapá State and his daughter, Roseana Sarney is currently Maranhão's governor) and José Sarney is the main leader of the biggest situation party, PMDB.We are still about to see what will come out of this.