the face. According to the testimonies of other women inmates, after the incident Leci Nazareth da Silva's mouth and lips were swollen and she was bleeding. The warden reportedly threatened the other inmates with reprisals if they dared to report the incident. On 31 March 1994, Jose['] Roberto dos Santos, also an AIDS sufferer, was severely beaten in the Casa de Detenc[,]?o, in S?o Paulo. According to his written testimony, he was verbally insulted and physically abused by a prison warden in an argument. When he reported the incident to a prison official, the official insulted him again and beat him with an iron bar. The prison officer then ordered Jose['] Roberto dos Santos to be taken to a senior official's office in another part of the prison, where he was met by a group of about 13 prison wardens who punched him, beat him with iron bars and kicked him. As a result, he began to cough up blood and was forced to wipe the blood from the floor with his own hands. On 1 April, a prison chaplain visited him in the infirmary and saw that Jose['] Roberto dos Santos had bruises on his chest, back and upper limbs. He had a swelling on his right hand side above the kidney and wounds on both legs. Amnesty International knows of no action taken against those responsible. Brazilians are now pushing for a profound, ethical reform of their political system. The peaceful and demorcatic presidential impeachment in 1992 was followed by a thorough congressional investigation of a vast budget corruption scandel affecting several members of the Brrazilian Congress. As a result, several Congressmen were unseated on the grounds of "unetheical behavior," reaffirming the stance that Brazilians want a corruption-free political environment. In a related development, Brazilian elevtoral legislation was updated and imporved with significant revisions made in the areas of disclosure of political contributors and in accountability. The 1994 general elections were ca...
