“Vidas em risco”: o Movimento Nacional de Meninos e Meninas de Rua e a CPI do Extermínio (Recife, 1991)

Abstract

Inequality and violence are the causes of a phenomenon that has become typical in Brazilian society, especially in the final three decades of the 20th century: the extermination of street children and adolescents. It is on these extermination frameworks that we will look at this work. In this complex context of trivialization and precariousness of the lives of these boys and girls and perpetuation of inequalities, there would be many denunciations by organized civil society and its social movements, such as the National Movement of Street Boys and Girls, against this extreme violence, besides the news and reports about the extermination of street boys and girls in the great urban centers of Brazil. The State, looking for the causes and solutions for this phenomenon, instituted a parliamentary commission of inquiry (CPI), aimed at investigating the extermination of children and adolescents in Brazil. The Extermination CPI, as it became known, was inaugurated on May 29, 1991 and was in Recife in September of the same year. From the newspapers of the “big press” and the “alternative press” we will try to understand what the reality of children and adolescents on the streets in Recife was like; what are the actions of social movements, especially the National Movement of Street Children and Girls, to defend the rights of these children and adolescents, especially the right to life, and how was the performance of the National Movement of Street Children and Girls been important for the institution of CPI do Extermínio and for its performance in Pernambuco. Our time frame, between January and September 1991, seeks to house both the discussions that preceded (between January and April 1991) and those that were contemporary with the installation of the CPI (May 1991) and its coming to Pernambuco (September 1991) ), in addition to historicizing the reality of street children and adolescents in Recife during the period. Finally, our work seeks to be a contribution to the field of historical studies that is dedicated to the study of Children, the History of Children.