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Read in English at Sul Books . Liberty-washing: a prática de invocar seletivamente a linguagem da liberdade, da restauração democrática ou do Estado de direito para legitimar ações coercitivas no exterior, desconsiderando a soberania, as restrições do direito internacional ou liberdades comparáveis no próprio país. Imagens de Fabio Teixeira que retratam um protesto dia 5 de janeiro, da Cinelândia até o Consulado dos Estados Unidos, no Rio de Janeiro – Brasil. A operação americana que resultou na prisão do presidente venezuelano Nicolás Maduro foi apresentada por Donald Trump como um ato decisivo em defesa da liberdade, da democracia e do Estado de direito. De acordo com declarações oficiais, a ação foi enquadrada como uma medida de aplicação da lei, baseada em acusações de longa data contra Maduro por tráfico de drogas e conspiração criminosa, combinadas com a alegação de que o sistema eleitoral venezuelano carecia de legitimidade. No entanto, a escala e a natureza da operação — envolvendo o uso de força militar contra um chefe de Estado em exercício — imediatamente levantaram questionamentos sobre o direito internacional, a soberania e as reais motivações. Compreender esse episódio exige separar três elementos distintos que frequentemente são condensados em uma única narrativa: as reais dificuldades enfrentadas pelos venezuelanos, as justificativas apresentadas pelo governo Trump e o uso político dessas justificativas para exercer poder além das fronteiras dos Estados Unidos. A Venezuela não é uma exceção — a crise é uma condição global A Venezuela, assim como outros países, tem vivenciado polarização política, volatilidade econômica, eleições contestadas e migração em massa. Nenhum desses fenômenos é único, nem justifica, por si só, a intervenção estrangeira. Eleições contestadas, ciclos inflacionários, violações dos direitos humanos e fluxos migratórios são características da política global contemporânea, inclusive em países que se posicionam regularmente como árbitros da democracia. Organizações internacionais, incluindo as Nações Unidas , a Human Rights Watch  e a Anistia Internacional , documentaram preocupações na Venezuela relacionadas ao devido processo legal, ao tratamento de oponentes políticos e à independência institucional. Relatórios semelhantes existem para aliados dos EUA  — e para os próprios Estados Unidos — onde o encarceramento em massa, a violência policial, a supressão do voto e os poderes de emergência também têm sido alvo de críticas constantes. A existência de falhas na governança não cria uma hierarquia de nações, em que algumas têm direito à soberania e outras são consideradas passíveis de perdê-la. A crise migratória da Venezuela deve ser compreendida nesse mesmo contexto global. Milhões de venezuelanos  deixaram o país na última década, se estabelecendo principalmente em países vizinhos da América Latina, como o Brasil . Seu deslocamento reflete uma convergência de contração econômica, sanções, desigualdade regional e impasse político. Os refugiados não são prova da falha moral de um Estado; são pessoas que enfrentam escolhas limitadas sob pressão estrutural. Merecem proteção, dignidade e respostas políticas sérias, e não serem usados retoricamente como símbolos de desordem. Apesar das frequentes referências de  comentaristas à migração , os refugiados não foram a principal justificativa legal ou operacional oferecida pelo governo Trump para a prisão de Maduro. As declarações oficiais enfatizaram duas alegações acima de todas as outras: tráfico de drogas e conspiração criminosa, com base em acusações dos EUA que alegavam que agentes do Estado venezuelano facilitavam o fluxo de narcóticos; e ilegitimidade eleitoral, com os EUA se recusando a reconhecer as recentes eleições venezuelanas como estando em conformidade com os padrões internacionais. Essas alegações foram apresentadas como ameaças à segurança nacional dos EUA e à estabilidade regional. Se as evidências sustentam tal ação extraordinária, isso permanece em debate. Avaliações de inteligência pública não demonstraram conclusivamente que a Venezuela desempenha um papel central único no tráfico transnacional de drogas em comparação com outros países da região. Tampouco a existência de eleições contestadas — um fenômeno global  — constitui base legal para intervenção militar unilateral. O que importa, do ponto de vista analítico, não é se essas preocupações são totalmente fabricadas, mas como são elevadas, isoladas e instrumentalizadas. Liberty-washing como Técnica Política Essa estratégia pode ser melhor descrita como liberty-washing.  Ela se refere à invocação seletiva da linguagem da liberdade, da democracia e do Estado de Direito para legitimar ações coercitivas no exterior, ignorando a soberania, as restrições do direito internacional e as liberdades comparáveis no próprio país. Assim como o pinkwashing  ou o greenwashing , não se baseia em falsidades absolutas, mas em uma seleção de verdades utilizadas para uma agenda política hegemônica. Nesse caso, as alegações de tráfico de drogas e irregularidades eleitorais são transformadas de desafios políticos em autorização moral. A linguagem da “libertação” substitui a diplomacia; a acusação criminal substitui o processo multilateral. A liberdade torna-se algo que os Estados Unidos reivindicam o direito de administrar, em vez de uma condição exercida pelos próprios povos. Essa lógica explica uma contradição central: Trump se apresenta como um defensor global da liberdade no exterior, enquanto contesta abertamente a legitimidade eleitoral, a independência judicial e a liberdade de imprensa internamente. Liberty-washing  resolve essa contradição transformando a liberdade em uma posse do poder, e não em um princípio universal. O Prêmio Nobel da Paz e a Personalização da Política Externa A fixação de Trump pelo Prêmio Nobel da Paz ilustra ainda mais como a instrumentalização da liberdade opera no nível da ambição pessoal. Relatos indicam que Trump via o prêmio como uma validação de sua estatura global, e que tensões surgiram quando a líder da oposição venezuelana, María Corina Machado, recebeu o prêmio em seu lugar. O reconhecimento de Machado, enraizado na luta política não violenta, não se traduziu em apoio total dos EUA, supostamente porque isso prejudicava a própria pretensão de Trump de ser uma autoridade na promoção da paz. Essa personalização é importante. Quando a política externa se torna um palco para a competição simbólica, os atores democráticos que não se alinham com esse simbolismo são marginalizados. A instrumentalização da liberdade, portanto, não fortalece a sociedade civil venezuelana; ela centraliza a legitimidade em Washington. A retórica de Trump após a operação sugere mais do que apenas a instauração de um processo judicial. Declarações sobre supervisionar a "transição" da Venezuela ou determinar resultados políticos aceitáveis ecoavam uma postura mais ampla, evidente em outros contextos — incluindo em Gaza — onde a soberania é tratada como provisória, revogável por uma força superior. Em ambos os casos, o território é discutido menos como o espaço político de um povo e mais como um problema de segurança a ser administrado. Lei, liberdade e ordem são invocadas não para restringir o poder, mas para racionalizar sua expansão. Isso não é uma anomalia; é uma lógica familiar de intervenção reformulada em linguagem contemporânea. Refugiados merecem proteção, e não serem usados como instrumento narrativo É crucial que os refugiados venezuelanos não sejam incluídos nessa lógica. Seu deslocamento não justifica o uso da força; é uma denúncia do fracasso global — incluindo regimes de sanções, desigualdade regional e apoio internacional inadequado. Respeitar os refugiados significa resistir à sua instrumentalização como moeda de troca moral em disputas geopolíticas. A retórica da liberdade transforma os refugiados em símbolos. Como prova do fracasso estatal, justificativa para intervenção ou pano de fundo para ganhos estratégicos. Uma abordagem séria, em vez disso, priorizaria os direitos de asilo, a cooperação regional e o apoio de longo prazo, sem militarização. A prisão de Nicolás Maduro não revela muito sobre a suposta disfunção excepcional da Venezuela, mas revela muito sobre como o poder opera quando envolto na linguagem da liberdade. As justificativas de Trump baseiam-se em preocupações seletivamente amplificadas sobre drogas, eleições e governança, transformadas em autoridade moral para ações unilaterais. Liberty-washing instrumentaliza o sofrimento. E, ao fazê-lo, arrisca transformar crises em precedentes para um mundo em que a soberania é condicional, a lei é opcional e a liberdade é algo imposto, e não vivido. Os venezuelanos — incluindo aqueles que fugiram — merecem melhor do que isso. _____ Escrito por Mirna Wabi-Sabi e fotografado por Fabio Teixeira Originalmente publicado na Le Monde Diplomatique

On January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good — a 37-year-old mother, poet, and Minnesota resident — was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Good was not a violent criminal; according to multiple eyewitness accounts and videos, she was unarmed in her vehicle during a large federal immigration enforcement operation when an agent fired multiple times, killing her. People denouncing and defending this murder invoke "domestic terrorism" as the explanation for this horrific situation. Domestic terrorism consists of violent, criminal acts committed by individuals or groups to further ideological goals; it's preposterous to have a debate about who in this scenario is the real terrorist. Good was peacefully resisting the actions of agents of an ideological institution that commits violent crimes to in still fear in marginalized contingents of American society, and faced their deadly ire. Good’s death is an extreme example of how federal agencies with broad, vaguely constrained powers can enact lethal force on civilian populations without transparent accountability — and why any sensible citizen argues these agencies operate in ways that terrorize communities. Justifiably, her death has led to widespread protests. The role of ICE in contemporary U.S. society is comparable to various forms of state policing whose violence is structurally tolerated and normalized, such as Brazil’s Military Police in favelas and the IDF in Palestine. These institutions operate with expansive authority, little civilian oversight, and use lethal force disproportionately against marginalized communities, contributing to patterns of fear and repression rather than safety. In Rio de Janeiro, Military Police operations in favelas have resulted in repeated massacres, with indiscriminate shootings and high civilian casualties. These operations often amount to collective punishment that terrorizes residents, and disproportionately affects Black and poor populations. In Palestine, the IDF’s occupation, settler protection, and blockade policies has produced widespread civilian casualties and destruction, often without transparent accountability mechanisms, reinforcing structural power imbalances and terrorizing communities. This pattern indicates not just isolated events, but systemic violence inherent in policing structures. ICE, a federal agency responsible for immigration control, carries out operations well beyond the U.S. border and employs aggressive tactics that instill fear, cause injury, and result in death within immigrant communities and, as is evident, far beyond. Photos of the rally and march "Ice/Border Patrol Out of NOLA!" in New Orleans, January 10th, 2026. By Mirna Wabi-Sabi. State Violence is Terror Defenders of ICE emphasize its legal mandate to enforce immigration laws. Opponents argue that when enforcement agencies use overwhelming force without accountability, the effect is state terrorism — that is, the systematic use of violence by governmental agents to control, intimidate, or repress civilian populations. This understanding calls attention to the terrorizing impact on communities who live under the constant threat of unaccountable force. Renee Good’s killing became a flashpoint because it occurred during an operation that had been terrorizing residents of Minneapolis for weeks. Just as police militarization in Brazil’s favelas is criticized for fostering a climate of fear and extrajudicial violence, the IDF's operations result in civilian deaths that traumatize Palestinian. Meanwhile, ICE’s domestic operations, conducted with limited local oversight, produce fear and trauma among immigrants and the broader public. Community Control as an Antidote The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) advocates for structures that directly address this terror threat by placing civilian oversight and accountability at the center of policing and enforcement. True oversight requires community participation, transparency, and power to shape law enforcement policy and discipline. NAARPR’s Campaign for Community Control of Police exemplifies this approach by demanding that communities, not just internal departmental review boards, have the authority to oversee police operations, budgets, and disciplinary proceedings. By democratizing control over public security, these movements aim to reduce violence and increase accountability, ensuring that agencies cannot operate as unregulated forces of coercion. Groups like Eye on Surveillance  are part of the civil society infrastructure that pushes for such oversight to exist, by demanding transparency from police and surveillance operators, and connecting communities to their rights and to policy efforts that can lead to formal structures of accountability. This network researches how surveillance systems, from facial recognition to predictive policing, are deployed without public consent and without adequate transparency, often targeting the vulnerable to enforcement violence. Whether it is ICE’s domestic raids, militarized police operations in Brazil, or surveillance technologies deployed by the IDF and globally, the underlying dynamics are: agencies equipped with state power and technological capacity act without community consent, producing terror . Civilian oversight and transparency mechanisms challenge this by bringing policing and surveillance under public control rather than leaving them in the hands of insulated enforcement bureaucracies. From Minneapolis to Rio de Janeiro, to Gaza and conflict zones around the globe, state violence under the guise of security creates environments where civilians are terrorized by the very forces meant to protect them. Recognizing that agencies like ICE and militarized police forces can act in ways that terrorize communities is not merely rhetorical; it is a call for structural transformation. Advocates for community control of police and civilian oversight offer concrete alternatives to unchecked state power, demanding transparency, accountability, and democratic governance of policing. If we are to live without fear of arbitrary or lethal state force, oversight structures must be rooted in communities themselves, empowered to shape policy, enforce discipline, and ensure that enforcement serves public safety rather than repression and terror. ________ by Mirna Wabi-Sabi

By Mirna Wabi-Sabi and photos by Fabio Teixeira. Published at Abeautifulresistance.org . It can be said that producing less garbage helps to extend human life on the planet, because, among other things, it preserves natural resources on which we depend to survive. Organic waste, in particular, is responsible for the production of methane, considerably increasing humanity's greenhouse gas emissions. But it is possible that the separation of organic waste can save lives in a more immediate way: by preventing cases of leptospirosis . It is not news that food waste in the garbage attracts animals such as rats, and that the urine of these animals can cause leptospirosis in humans. According to the photojournalist Fabio Teixeira, author of the photographic series “Surviving Between Shadow and Light”, anonymous workers, who work in the outskirts of communities in Rio de Janeiro, are victims of racism, police violence, and suffer from diseases caused by the trash. “These unemployed people recycle garbage to find copper, iron, aluminum, and toys to repair and donate. According to information from the recyclers, two deaths were caused by contamination with leptospirosis in November and December of 2022.” 04/03/2023 – Fabio Teixeira – Manguinhos Favela This observation by Teixeira is supported by public health research, although the numbers are likely to be underreported . The community of workers in the recycling and garbage collection industry is described as being at constant risk in the 2017 article called 'Perception of Quality of Life of Collectors of Recyclable Materials ', from the nursing journal of the Federal University of Pernambuco. The authors explain that “because this type of work requires permanent contact with agents that are harmful to health”, the “activity that handles garbage” is “unhealthy to the highest degree”. Such statements may sound obvious, but the issue of waste has the potential to affect the entire urban population, not just professionals who handle waste. The Radioagência Nacional , of the Brazilian public communications company, released an alert in March of this year about the increase in “cases and deaths” caused by leptospirosis. Heavy rains and floods exacerbate the problem, and expose a large contingent of the population, leading to 24 cases and 3 deaths recorded by the Rio de Janeiro Health Department in the first two months of 2023. Proposals to mitigate this danger so far have been: preventing children from playing in places with “ accumulated water ” or taking out the garbage at most one hour before the garbage truck comes by . But these solutions do not protect the population as a whole, since garbage is still taken to places where people come in contact with it and expose themselves to risks. Moreover, the recurrent potential for floods in urban areas makes it impossible to avoid accumulated water. Conscious consumption and disposal of waste is the most effective tool in the hands of individuals and requires a simple reconfiguration of home dynamics. "Don't Throw Your Conscience in the Trash" What constitutes conscious consumption are the practices that begin with the purchase of products. Better than recycling is to produce less garbage. For this, it is pertinent to give preference to products without packaging, such as vegetables and fruits. If there is packaging, opt for compostable packaging, such as paper, or reusable packaging, such as glass jars. When disposing of plastic, tetra pak and fabric, ensure that they are clean, with no food leftovers or smells. It is important that this garbage is free of residues or odors of organic matter because they serve as food for and attract rodents. Separating all food scraps from the garbage prevents the emission of methane into the atmosphere and prevents rats from being attracted by this residue. The question is what to do with this leftover food. Composting is the best way to turn these organic wastes into composted land without producing methane or attracting rodents. But not everyone is able to compost at home. Community gardens such as A Amiga da Planta , in the oceanic region of Niterói, receive and collect organic matter from neighboring residents to use in composting and provide guidance on how to separate these materials – e.g., avoid adding meat, and separate citrus peels in their own containers. The reconfiguration of the culture of consumption and waste disposal at home requires little time and space, but requires interest and awareness. 09/03/2023 – Fabio Teixeira – Manguinhos Favela Consider that someone will handle the garbage and the welfare of those people is of immense importance, as well as consider that this garbage exists for decades or centuries after we throw it away. It is beneficial for all of us that this waste can be separated, reused or recycled in a sustainable and healthy way, without polluting the land or oceans, and without causing deaths . The work of collecting and separating garbage is essential for the sustainability of consumption practices, for environmental protection, and for the preservation of natural resources such as clean water and fertile land. 2022 – Fabio Teixeira – RIO DE JANEIRO Dealing with Public Policy Failure Which actions and programs should be developed by the State to guarantee the well-being of the population? Leptospirosis is a disease caused by the failure of basic sanitation services, the overcrowding of municipalities in favor of the real estate market, and by inhuman levels of social inequality. “The improper disposal of solid waste is involved in determining the appearance of infectious diseases” ( 2017 ), and adequacy means not only an appropriate destination, but also adequate equipment and decent living conditions for workers. An intersectional analysis between labor rights, access to health and education, basic sanitation, sustainability and environmentalism allows for the development of a holistic solution to this problem. According to research by the nursing journal of the Federal University of Pernambuco, “the degradation of the natural environment and the generation of waste cause physical health impairments, psychological and psychiatric disorders, and social disintegration.” The well-being of the population depends on actions that consider the physical, psychological, and social spheres. Therefore, solutions such as waiting to take out the garbage or avoiding coming into contact with accumulated water do not fully address the public health problem of leptospirosis. This totality includes family consumption up to its disposal method, various public policy failures, sustainable community practices and an environmentalist perspective. The History of Leptospirosis Leptospirosis was brought to the Americas with the rodents present on European ships during colonization, and it is possible that it caused a massacre of indigenous populations. The article “ New Hypothesis for Cause of Epidemic Among Native Americans, New England, 1616–1619 ” proposes that consideration should be given to “customs that may have been instrumental to the near annihilation of Native Americans, which facilitated successful colonization of the Massachusetts Bay area”. And that these “local customs continually exposed this population to hyperendemic leptospiral infection”. The academic journal ‘PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases’, dedicated to "infectious diseases that promote poverty", published an article on the " Global Burden of Leptospirosis " in 2015. In it, the researchers estimate that leptospirosis is a serious problem for resource-poor tropical countries, including countries in Africa, "due to diagnostic problems and lack of data." Data from Tanzania and the Amazon reveal that fever is a common symptom and malaria is over-diagnosed as a cause. This leads to substantial numbers of leptospirosis 'burden estimates ' being misallocated to other infectious diseases such as malaria. Source for graph: SINAN-03/03/2023 According to data published by the Brazilian ‘Notifiable Diseases Information System’ (Sinan) on March 3, 2023 , there was an increase in cases of leptospirosis in the country in 2022, or a more drastic than usual underreporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. A few days earlier, on March 1st, the Radioagência Nacional reported 3 deaths in 2023 that are not included in Sinan's figures. It is evident that the magnitude of the impact of leptospirosis in Brazil is not being precisely quantified. Sources of graphs: SINAN-01/03/2023 and SINAN- DOI Due to the population density in the regions of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, their numbers stand out, alongside Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. Although Rio has a “ prevalence rate lower than the national rate ” per 100,000 inhabitants, outbreaks of leptospirosis in the city coincide with summer storms since the 1960s, and “areas with occurrence of floods have more cases”. These areas tend to be, as expected, of poor sanitary conditions , with low-income communities . In 2020, Mário Martins and Mary Spink published an article called “ Human leptospirosis as a doubly neglected disease in Brazil ”, where the following statement is made: "Our analysis shows [...] the arbitrariness of criteria for assigning health priorities, [and] the invisibility of the population profile of human leptospirosis in official data. [...] We conclude that [this is] related to the fact that human leptospirosis affects a population which the State has no interest in keeping alive.” Leptospirosis killed more Brazilians than dengue fever every year between 2000 and 2016 – 3 times more – but received nine times less medical investment. There are more cases of dengue fever, so the questioning is far from being a criticism of funding for its treatment and prevention. But academics have for years been pointing out the severe neglect with which leptospirosis is tackled institutionally, and the parallel with dengue fever highlights this. “ Quantifying the magnitude of health loss ” due to leptospirosis is difficult because of issues discussed in several academic articles, but there is no doubt that cases are underreported, misdiagnosed, and resources are not sufficiently allocated for research and prevention. Since the arrival of this disease on “ slave ships ”, it is still a racialized and impoverished population that is forced to live in unhealthy conditions, without appropriate resources and access to decent public policies. At the very least, this should encourage us to take action in our homes and communities to help prevent cases and deaths from this disease – actions such as refraining from adding organic matter to the garbage just as we refrain from pouring grease down the drain. Human beings and the environment can only benefit from the awareness of the population and public institutions of the causes and solutions to the problem of garbage as a risk to human and environmental health. _____ By Mirna Wabi-Sabi and photos by Fabio Teixeira.

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