In 2020 murders increased in Brazil by almost five percent. Seventy-eight percent were by firearms. | Photo: EFE

Brasilia, October 5 (RHC)-- More than 80 human rights organizations have announced that they will denounce the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, for using a child to promote his policy in favor of the use of weapons.

The action by Brazil's president, documented by several local and international media, violates the provisions of the Federal Constitution of Brazil and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.   

The incident occurred on September 30th during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Belo Horizonte subway project and the laying of the first stone in the construction of the National Vaccine Center.

"I'm almost 70 years old. When I was a kid, I played with this: gun, arrow, slingshot.  This is how my generation was created and we grew up men, strong, healthy and hardworking," asserted the Brazilian president, while thanking the boy's parents for "providing him with an example of courtesy."

Under Bolsonaro's mandate, the sale and transport of arms and ammunition has increased significantly.  The Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security records that in three years the use and of weaponry by civilians has doubled.  The total number of weapons registered in 2017 by the police in this country was 637,000 and in 2020 reached more than 1,200,000.

Last year, murders in Brazil reached 57,592, increasing about five percent over 2019 and there was one every ten minutes.  Seventy-eight percent of violent deaths in this country were caused by firearms.