Homophobic Brazilian politician pro-coup, pro-torture

This BBC video says about itself:

Brazil Truth Commission: Victims revisit torture cells

10 December 2014

Nearly 30 years after the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship, a national truth commission is issuing a report into human rights abuses carried out during that time.

… people were killed or disappeared during the dictatorship and there have been renewed calls for a controversial amnesty law to be repealed.

Some of the women who were tortured at the Department of Political and Social Order have been back to the cells they were held in.

From teleSUR in South America:

Brazil Pro-Coup Lawmaker Probed for Support of Torture and Misogyny

28 June 2016

According to the complaint, Bolsonaro is also a self-declared homophobe and racist, and openly against the rights of LGBT and indigenous communities.

Brazil’s Congress opened an ethics investigation on Tuesday into Jair Bolsonaro, an outspoken lawmaker whose views on torture, rape and homosexuality are sparking concern that the country’s political crisis may foster an authoritarian political revival.

The ethics committee of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, will try to determine if Bolsonaro, a former Brazilian Army paratrooper, broke parliamentary decorum when he prefaced his vote in April to impeach President Dilma Rousseff with a speech praising Army Colonel Carlos Ustra.

Courts have found Ustra, a notorious Army intelligence officer during the 1964-1985 military regime, responsible for torture. Rousseff, a former left-wing insurgent, was tortured by Ustra’s Army intelligence unit.

For his congressional opponents, Bolsonaro’s backing of Ustra represents support of torture.

During the vote, the only openly gay lawmaker in Brazil’s Congress Jean Wyllys (Party of Socialism and Liberty) spit in Bolsonaro’s face after saying, “In the name of the Indigenous people, of the Black people exterminated in the suburbs, of culture workers, of homeless people, of landless workers, I am voting ‘No to the coup, you crooks.'”

Bolsonaro, Brazil’s fourth-most popular politician according to recent polls and a member of the Social Christian Party, is an extreme example of a broader shift to the right in Brazilian politics in the wake of Rousseff’s impeachment. Small groups of protesters in recent anti-Rousseff street marches were seen carrying signs calling for a return of military rule.

Conservative legislators in Brazil said recently they will back interim President Temer through a growing corruption scandal in return for support for tougher restrictions on abortion and gay rights, looser gun control and more power for farmers

rather: landlords

in disputes with Indian tribes.

A congressional ethics examination and resulting recommendation can lead to sanctions that include removal from office.

Bolsonaro said Ustra was never formally convicted and congressmen have immunity to say whatever they like on the chamber’s floor. Only five lawmakers attended the opening ethics committee meeting.

While Brazil’s constitution protects free speech, laws still exist making speech considered racist or hateful toward identifiable groups illegal. In some cases people have been charged under laws making it a crime to defend the use of illegal drugs.

In the end of April, the Brazilian Union for Writers also filed a complaint against Bolsonaro at the International Criminal Court over crimes against humanity, following his praise of Ustra. They claimed parliamentary immunity could not apply in the case, because Bolsonaro’s words were not related with his position as a lawmaker.

According to the complaint, Bolsonaro is also a self-declared homophobe and racist, and openly against the rights of LGBT and indigenous communities.

Bolsonaro is also defending himself in the Supreme Court against accusations of inciting rape for comments he made in December 2014. He said lawmaker María del Rosario, former Human Rights Minister under Dilma Rousseff was “very ugly” and “did not deserve to be raped.”

The local congress of Bolsonaro’s home city also recently declared him as “persona non grata” after he allegedly insulted the work of the city’s lawmakers.