In Brazil, threats to female candidates have become recurrent | Image: Luís Gustavo Moreira Carmo / Global Voices With the first round of the presidential elections on Oct. 2 approaching, cisgender, transgender, and travestis in women involved in Brazilian politics have been denouncing on their social media episodes of gender political violence, considered now an electoral crime in Brazil. Messages of sexist, racist, and even Nazi-inspired references are among the threats that have reached councilwomen and congresswomen. The women have common affiliations to leftist or center-left parties and the shared defense of agendas linked to diversity and the fight against inequalities. The most voted City Council member in the 2020 elections and the first transgender councilwoman in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Duda Salabert (PDT, Democratic Labor Party), denounced in early August that she received an e-mail with a death threat from a “neo-Nazi group that is present in forums and virtual environments.” The message also contained Nazi references, she says. A police report was registered and, also in the networks, the councilwoman said that she had lost her job as a teacher: Por causa desses nazistas perdi meu emprego ano passado, pois eles enviaram na época e-mails para a escola onde eu trabalhava dizendo que transformariam a escola em um mar de sangue, caso eu continuasse dando aula lá. + — Duda Salabert 🌳 (@DudaSalabert) August 1, 2022 Because of these Nazis I've lost my job last year, since they've sent emails to the school where I worked saying I would turn the place into a sea of blood, if I'd continued teaching there About two weeks later, Duda, who is now also running for the federal Lower Chamber, was targeted again. In her office, she received newspapers with Nazi and homophobic writings and drawings. In the messages, Duda is addressed in the male gender and the message says that she should be isolated “in a concentration camp full of crap just like you:” 🆘Terrível: acabo de receber mais uma ameaça nazista, dessa vez por carta. Chegou agora em meu gabinete na câmara de vereadores uma carta com esse conteúdo : folhas de jornais com escritos e imagens relacionadas ao Nazismo. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/FGr0Zbmjpn — Duda Salabert 🌳 (@DudaSalabert) August 17, 2022 SOS Terrible: I've just received another Nazi threat, now by letter. A letter with this content has just arrived at my City council office: newspaper pages with writings and Nazi-linked images. The congresswoman stated that she is campaigning with a police escort and bulletproof vests. Another councilwoman elected in 2020 in São Paulo, Erika Hilton (PSOL, Socialism and Liberty Party), received an anonymous e-mail in March of this year, also with a death threat. She is the first travesti (Latin-American gender identity) to occupy a seat in the City Council and, since the beginning of her term, has faced threats with transphobic and racist content. The intimidation led Hilton to file a police report and, as in Duda's case, open debate about the LGBTQIAP+ political violence. At the time, via Instagram, she commented: Desde o início do meu mandato as ameaças e agressões são constantes, e minha vida mudou completamente. Não posso receber amigos em casa, não posso ir ao mercado sozinha, estou sempre acompanhada por seguranças e carro oficial. Meus agressores acham que vão me parar, mas apesar do medo, natural diante da rotina de ameaças, eles estão enganados. Seguirei firme, me cuidando, mas aprofundando o trabalho político que começamos. Since the beginning of my mandate, the threats and aggressions are constant, and my life has changed completely. I can't receive friends at home, I can't go to the market alone, I am always accompanied by security guards and an official car. My aggressors think they are going to stop me, but despite the fear, natural in face of the routine of threats, they are wrong. I will continue to stand firm, taking care of myself, but deepening the political work that we have started. In the first weeks of August, Hilton was threatened again after, together with councilwoman Natasha Ferreira (also from the PSOL, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul), denouncing to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office homophobic speeches of President Jair Bolsonaro in a podcast interview. Addressed in the male gender, both were threatened with death in an e-mail that contained sentences such as “hate is our reason for living” and a threat of bombing their homes if they didn't abandon public life.