Débora Maria da Silva still carries the marks of her son’s birth on her body. A victim of obstetric violence, like many black women in Brazil, she almost saw her son Edson Rogério Silva dos Santos die because of medical negligence.
Rogério’s difficult birth is in contrast with the way he died 29 years later. A street sweeper, he was a victim of a war that was not his – caught in the crossfire between the São Paulo State Police and the criminal faction First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC). ‘When I lost him, I remembered all the suffering for him to be born and suddenly the state comes and kills my son,’ says Débora. Rogério was one of 564 people killed during the ‘Crimes of May’, between 12-21 May 2006. At least 122 of the executions were carried out by the police.
