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A Reason for Hope in Brazil’s Justice System

By Masha Lisitsyna

An effort to expose state-sanctioned torture offers tools for stemming further impunity.

Brazilians have little faith in their justice system – just 33% said they trusted the judiciary in a 2018 survey. Many believe it fosters impunity for the powerful, from politicians to the police. But at the end of 2019, advocates working to reform the system saw a reason – if a small one – to hope things could get better in the year ahead.

Shortly before Christmas, a civilian court in Rio de Janeiro acquitted seven young men from the Complexo da Penha favela community of drug charges...

Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.

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