Dispatches International M.’s story happened years
ago. Nonetheless, unfortunately, it is an accurate representation of what continues today. In five years of existence, Pro-
Paz – the victims’ protection pro- gram – has registered almost 5,000 cases of pedophilia. “Someone had to break the silence, because we knew something very wrong was happening, and nothing was being done to prevent this monstrosity,” says Fonseca, the coordinator of the program, referring to the years that preceded Propaz. “People used to bring children harmed in the genitals to hospitals, and used to give excuses, hiding the actual cause of the damage. They used to say ‘the child fell over the bidet,’ or ‘she fell on the floor’.” “After we did the exams, we
used to find out that the child had been raped,” Fonseca adds. “But nothing was done to prevent the kid from going back home, which is usually the place the abuser is concealed.” ProPaz was created to help
victims of sexual abuse, which very often have no one to count on and no home to return to. They are, too often, left aside in shame. Children like M. suffer in every Brazilian city and even more suffer in rural areas. Most often, cultural stan- dards make this problem difficult to detect.
Since Brazil was a Portu-
guese colony until the 19th centu- ry, the predominant family model is patriarchal. Many agree that this has fostered a culture where abuse
18
of women and girls is accepted. Many women from poor families are forced into prostitution. That situation continues to this day, while many also face sexual abuse, children and adolescents included. Pedophiles are generally
close to their victim, often living near or in the same place. “During our investigations, we discovered that in 80% of the cases the abuser has some kind of proximity with the child or the child’s family,” says Arnaldo Jordy, Brazilian Dep- uty Rapporteur of the Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito (CPI), or the Parliamentary Inquiry Commis- sion on Pedophilia. This group of politicians has united to investigate cases of pedophilia in Brazil. “Pe- dophiles can be uncles, neighbors, family friends, or even the child’s father.” The CPI on Pedophilia was
created at the beginning of 2009, and has, so far, investigated many more cases than Propaz registered in its office. The new cases being discovered by the CPI tell two sto- ries; increased awareness by au- thorities, but also a bleaker picture of the extent of abuse than had been previously known. “We started investigating 140 cases, and ended up finding another 27,000 victims. It is an astonishing number,” says Jordy. He says that according to studies, every case leads to another three cases. “This number indicates that
there have been more than 100,000 cases of pedophilia in the last five years only inside our state of Para,
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