MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rise of neo‑Nazi groups reported in Brazil

The state of Santa Catarina accounts for the largest number of supremacist groups detected over the past few years

According to a study from Brazil’s National Human Rights Council based on various surveys, the presence of Nazi groups in the South American country is alarmingly on the rise. The document was submitted before the United Nations (UN), Agencia Brasil reported this week.

The Human Rights Ministry's agency gathered data from a series of surveys, including those by the late anthropologist Adriana Dias, who found that neo-Nazi group cells surged by 270.6% in Brazil from January 2019 to May 2021, spreading across all regions of the country. Dias died in 2023.

The phenomenon is said to have been driven by the spread of hate speech and extremist narratives. Without punishment, they found ways to spread more easily. According to the study, Brazil had over 530 extremist groups at the beginning of 2022. Their members share a hatred of feminists as well as Jewish, black, and LGBTQIAP+ people.

The southern state of Santa Catarina is one of the most worrying. In the city of Blumenau alone, 63 neo-Nazi cells were mapped in Dias’s research.

Another survey undertaken by the Fiquem Sabendo agency showed that 159 inquiries were opened by the Federal Police between Jan. 2019 and Nov. 2020 into condoning Nazism. The figure covers less than two years and exceeds the total of 143 investigations opened over 15 years (2003–2018).

The document highlights that 14,476 anonymous complaints were received in 2021 by the National Cybercrime Center, a channel maintained by the NGO SaferNet, aided by the Federal Prosecution Service. Input from the Jewish Observatory’s survey of anti-Semitic and related events between 2019 and 2022 was also included.

In some of the cases described, artifacts linked to Nazism were seized, including uniforms, weapons, and flags, as well as decorative articles with images such as Adolf Hitler's face and a swastika.

The council also noted the rise in attacks at schools with some of the perpetrators donning neo-Nazi imagery. In Dec. 2022, a 16-year-old student killed four people in schools in Aracruz, Espírito Santo State. He was wearing a military uniform and an armband with a Nazi symbol.

Created through a federal law in 2014, the National Human Rights Council is tasked with promoting and defending human rights in Brazil. It operates autonomously, even though it reports to the Human Rights Ministry. Of the 22 councilors, 11 are representatives of society and the other 11 are civil servants.

The council expects the latest report to contribute to discussions at the 55th meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (Switzerland) in late June when also a new edition of the report on global efforts to combat the glorification of Nazism will be presented by India’s Ashwini K.P., special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related forms of bigotry.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)