4 Brazil Skinheads Arrested in Plot Against Jews and Neo-Nazis
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Four skinheads who reportedly were planning an attack on a group also carrying anti-Jewish neo-Nazi propaganda were arrested at a bustling Sao Paulo subway station.
The skinheads, who were carrying knives and axes as well as the Nazi propaganda, were arrested Wednesday in Anhangabau. They were about to perpetrate an attack on the other group, the R7 news portal reported.
Jews were also a target of the skinheads: Police seized posters with “Jews out” messages in Portuguese, as well as advertising material featuring Adolf Hitler and Italian fascist Benito Mussolini.
Last May, two Brazilian skinheads were sentenced to eight years of detention for promoting Nazism on Facebook. Soon after, three swastikas were found painted on walls in a Rio de Janeiro neighborhood that is heavily populated with middle class and elderly Jewish residents.
According to Brazilian law, promoting Nazi or Nazi-related propaganda can lead to a prison sentence of two to five years, plus a fine.
Sao Paulo is home to some 60,000 Jews, more than half of Brazil’s Jewish population.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
