Last week I was under the impression that the bus burnings here in Piracicaba were related to the widespread political protests. They aren't. The bus burnings in my city are related to an issue between the local military police and the local drug lords. I didn't even know that Piracicaba had trouble with gang violence until these recent happenings. My friend from school, Anna Paula, said that the local drug and gang violence began escalating about three years ago.
Back Story
This is what I heard; the military police went after a gang member who was wanted for armed robbery. They found him. Those who saw what happened say the gang member was sitting on a curb, unarmed and apparently surrendering, and the police shot and killed him.
Burn the Buses
So the drug lords decided to burn the buses to teach the police a lesson. On Thursday the Piracicaba Journal published an article that stated that five buses had been burned in one week in the city. My host family's cleaning lady, Mirium, depends on bus transportation and directly feels the effects of the bus chaos. The previously overcrowded and tardy buses are now even more crowded and undependable she told me. "Why don't they(gangs) burn the police cars" Mirium halfway joked.
Bus Carcasses
As of Thursday, two of the recently burned buses are still in the street where they were burned. Weird. Maybe it's just in my head, but I feel like fallen trees and "bus carcasses", as the Piracicaba paper put it, would be cleared from the street faster in the US than here.
Photo by: Fernanda Zanetti
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