The killing of a homeless catador – an unofficial waste collector – has sparked fierce protests. For 20,000 marginalised workers with no rights, it may be pivotal
Shortly before 6pm on Wednesday 12 July, Ricardo Nascimento, a homeless man who made a living collecting recycling, got into a heated discussion with two military police officers outside a pizzeria. Nascimento, who was well-known to residents of the affluent São Paulo neighbourhood of Pinheiros, was holding a piece of wood; when he refused to drop it, the officers shot him twice in the chest. The 39-year-old died instantly.
It was still light and the roads were teeming with people. Locals and passersby began to shout “murderers” and “fascists” at the police. The officers packed the body into the trunk of a police car, and one witness, Gilvan Artur Leal, 53, said when he tried to help the prone man, he was told to stop – or else he would be “next”.
They picked up his body and threw it in the trunk of the car like it was a bag of rubbish
Guardian Cities is in São Paulo for a week of live reporting and special events, discussing every aspect of this fascinating Brazilian metropolis. While its flashy smaller sibling Rio De Janeiro does its best to hog the spotlight, it is São Paulo that has quietly become South America’s first true megacity – the engine of Brazil, home to incredible creativity and thriving commerce, but also some uniquely eye-opening social problems.
Graffiti is a marginalised art, and catadores are a marginalised people. We met on the margins
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