Pernambuco

HRW report: Brazil’s prisons are a “human rights disaster”

VICE News

SÃO PAULO — Prisons controlled by criminal gangs rather than guards and filled with moldy and windowless cells stinking of urine and feces in which dozens of men are forced to compete for floor space on which to sleep — life for inmates in Brazil’s state of Pernambuco amounts to a “human rights disaster,” according to a new report released on Tuesday.

The report was compiled by the US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) that visited four prisons and interviewed past and current prisoners, their families, and security officials in the poverty stricken northeastern state.

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Thousands attend funeral for Brazil candidate Eduardo Campos

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO — An open-air funeral service for Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos drew over 100,000 people onto the streets of the northeastern city of Recife, capital of the Pernambuco state, on Sunday, local media say.

Archbishop Dom Fernando Saburido led the public mass service as thousands filed past Campos’s coffin in the gubernatorial Princesses’ Field Palace, where he lay in state along with two members of his entourage who also perished in Wednesday’s plane crash.

In a highly-politicised event, dozens of senior politicians from across the political spectrum headed to Recife to pay their final respects to the former Pernambuco state governor, including his two main rivals for the presidency, the incumbent president, Dilma Rousseff, and Minas Gerais senator Aécio Neves.

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World Cup protests, strikes held across Brazil

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO – A string of protests against the World Cup and strikes by teachers, military police and other public workers across Brazil have brought thousands of people onto the streets on Thursday.

Protests were held in multiple locations in and around São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, where police said around 4,000 people had taken part in the early demonstrations, most of which were organised by the Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST) and affiliated groups.

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