By María Josefina Arce

In the last few hours and in the context of Brazil's commemoration of Black Consciousness Day, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a series of measures in favor of Afro-Brazilians, who although they make up 56% of the population of the South American country are subject to racial discrimination.
  
The measures include the titling of quilombola territories, inhabited by descendants of Black slaves, as well as national programs to benefit this sector of the population and cooperation initiatives.
   
Since he assumed the presidency in January of this year, this is the second package of measures approved by Lula da Silva to reduce the historic inequality faced by the Afro-Brazilian population, which was accentuated under the mandate of the ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro.
  
Last March's initiatives were also aimed at improving the lives of this segment of the population in the educational, labor and religious spheres.
   
The president thus gives continuity to the actions deployed under his two previous mandates, from 2003 to 2011, and which came to a standstill with Bolsonaro's arrival at the Planalto Palace.
   
In fact, Afro-Brazilian organizations and movements denounced that under the administration of the ultra-right-winger, racism has practically become a state policy.
   
A UN report on structural racism in countries of the Americas, published in September 2022 and citing the Brazilian Public Security Forum, refers that almost 80% of the victims of police operations in 2020 were Black people.
    
During the COVID 19 pandemic, the highest number of fatalities was recorded among the Brazilian black population. A survey by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics showed that Blacks, together with women and the poor, were the most affected by the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
   
Likewise, official statistics quoted by the Prensa Latina news agency, indicate that blacks are a minority in the professions and higher education, while they are in the majority in prisons, unemployment and poverty.
    
The current Brazilian government, presided by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has made clear, with its actions, its commitment to work in favor of the human rights of the Black population, which 135 years after the abolition of slavery continues to be subject to racial discrimination.