According to information from the Federal Union of Public servers of Basic, Professional and Technological Education (SINASEFE), the teacher and trade unionist Camila Marques was arrested yesterday morning, (Tues 15/04), at the Aguas Lindas campus of the Federal Institute of Goiás (IFG). She was in class when she was detained.
During a statement recorded in video by Marques and posted on SINASEFE’s Facebook page, she told that the police was truculent towards her and the students, and when she started to film their action, a police officer said that she wasn’t allowed to film them. Another police officer claimed that they were investigating a terrorist threat in the school but because of her attitude she would have to go to the police station with them as a witness, she was taken with together with 3 students.
On the way to the police car she phoned the union’s lawyer and asked him to meet her there, but all of the sudden the police took her by surprise and handcuffed her and put her inside a civilian’s vehicle (instead of a proper police car), inside the vehicle she was verbally abused by the police officers and one of them assaulted her, holding her already restrained arms in order to take her phone away.
At the station the police were rude, and kept insulting her saying that she was getting what she deserved, she was taken to the hospital as is a common procedure during a arrest in Brazil, and the police officers even threatened to not remove her handcuffs during her physical exam. After the hospital they took her back to the police station handcuffed again and stayed there being verbally abused and threatened by the police. The police officers refused her the right to speak to her lawyer, and after many hours kept isolated from her students and without communication with others, the police chief decided to see her and only then was she allowed to speak with her lawyer and have her phone back.
She was released, but there isn’t information if she will be charged with something yet.
There is a lot of speculation over this, especially because Camila Marques is an active member of the teacher’s union. During his campaign and now in his government Bolsonaro heavily criticised the teachers accusing them of indoctrination and asking for students to film their classes, creating a extremely hostile environment for teachers nationwide.
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