Human Rights Award Recipient to Speak

Ventura County residents have an opportunity Friday to hear the story of a Brazilian man forced to flee his native land only three weeks after becoming the first winner of his nation’s human rights award.

Caio Ferraz, 27, will discuss his flight from Brazil at a 7 p.m. Amnesty International meeting at Poinsettia Pavilion, 3451 Foothill Road, Ventura. Admission is free.

The young sociologist won a presidential award for his work at converting the site of an alleged 1993 massacre of 21 people by off-duty policemen in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown into a community center to serve the victims’ families and area residents.

But his criticism of police corruption and abuses brought death threats, Amnesty International officials said.

After a gun was held to his head during a police “check-up” of the community center, Ferraz left the country with his wife and child, officials with the nonprofit human rights group said.

Ferraz, studying for his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies, is on a Southern California speaking tour.

He is in the midst of a human rights campaign to reform Brazil’s police forces.

For more information, call 643-6605 or 649-5865.