Panic Twice in the City

“S o Paulo is a dead city. The populace is alarmed; faces register panic and apprehension because everything is closed, without the slightest movement. Besides a few scurrying pedestrians, only military vehicles occupy the streets. Troops armed with rifles and machine guns have orders to fire at anyone who remains on the street.” This city emptied by fear isn’t the 21st -century megalopolis that hid behind the barricades on the night of the 15th of May, 2006; but a still-provincial city, recently industrialized, paralyzed by a general strike in July 1917.