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Number 137, July 14, 1994.

VIOLENCE

- Growing urban violence in Brazil worries Amnesty International.

According to an article in "O Globo" on July 06, the increase of violence in the large Brazilian cities was the reason why Amnesty International decided to prepare a special report about Brazil. The report will be published in 1995 but Amnesty is already researching the increase of violence in Brazil during the last five years. "The situation is extremely preoccupying and for this reason Amnesty will prepare a specific report. Proportionally the violence in Recife is much greater than in Sao Paulo or in Rio de Janeiro" commented Amnesty's director, Monica Hummel on July 05.

The president of the Brazilian branch of the entity, Carlos Alberto Ideota, complained of the lack of concrete steps being undertaken by the Brazilian government in the area of human rights. He specifically mentioned the government of the State of Rio de Janeiro which has recently been alerted about the lack of security of the street children who are witnesses of the Candelaria massacre in July 1993. "We informed the government that the street children (witnesses) continue to live on the streets without protection but nothing has been done" he said.

The recently published annual report of Amnesty International describes many of the Brazilian crimes which gained international attention during the last year. Brazil is listed in the report amongst the 15 countries where the most serious crimes committed by police forces have been registered.

Meanwhile the "Folha de Sao Paulo" published an article on July 13 which quoting from a recent report of the Secretariat for Public Security of Sao Paulo claims that youth under 21 years of age are responsible for half the assassinations committed in the Greater Sao Paulo area and that 60% of the victims are under 25 years. According to the report homicides in Sao Paulo increased 25% during the last six months.

According to the article, the police have also prepared another dossier which shows that the recent wave of assassinations in the city has surpassed all previous records. According to the dossier, in 1991 and 1992, between 340 and 460 assassinations were committed per month in Sao Paulo. Since late 1993 the number has been in the region of 500 per month and last April it reached 600. The daily average since early June 1994 has been 19 assassinations in Sao Paulo. Guns were used in 825 of the assassinations during that period and 80% of the victims were men. The dossier calculates that approximately 30% of the assassins since early June belonged to the middle class population.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, director of the Nucleo of Studies of Violence of the University of Sao Paulo commenting on the statistics remarked "This is a phenomenon which has been happening in Europe and the USA. The social differences are the causes of the problem. These youth do not have access to social benefits; this represents a failure of the public authorities". However, the fact that youth are also the victims causes Pinheiro to comment "We need to find out why. This could be the work of professional killers". He went on to say that the increase of assassinations is due to impunity, to the lack of adequate minimum conditions for survival, to the lack of a government policy to combat organized crime and to the increase in the number of guns circulating in the city.

According to police chief Joaquim Dias Alves there are approximately 10 thousand unregistered guns in the city of Sao Paulo. An estimated one in every 40 people in the city owns a gun and the police confiscate almost 20 thousand illegal guns each year.

CHILDREN

- Report shows extermination of children in Rio de Janeiro.

At least 70% of the violent deaths of 1152 children and adolescents in the State of Rio de Janeiro during 1993 were caused by extermination groups according to the preliminary version of the annual report of the Center of Articulation of Marginalized Populations (CEAP) recently released.

The survey used data supplied by the Institute of Legal Medicine (where autopsies are carried out) and by the state secretariat of the civil police. According to Ivanir dos Santos, executive secretary of CEAP, 855 of the 1152 (74.22%) violent deaths of children and adolescents under 17 years of age during 1993 were caused by groups contracted to kill minors. 570 were killed by arms and 285 as the result of aggression. According to Santos, during the first three months of 1994, 234 of the 308 (72.9%) of the violent deaths of minors were caused by extermination groups. 55.19% of these violent deaths occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro, 26.6% in the neighboring Baixada Fluminense region of the greater Rio area, 12.66% in Niteroi also in the greater Rio area and 5.52% in the interior of the state.

The secretariat of the civil police in the state contests the numbers given by CEAP and claims that only 560 minors were violently assassinated in Rio de Janeiro last year.

- Statistics for infant mortality twice the world record in town in the State of Alagoas.

The municipality of Teotonio Vilela, 100 kms from the Maceio, the state capital of Alagoas has an infant mortality rate which is almost twice the statistic for the country with the world's highest infant mortality rate - Niger (191 deaths per 1000).

Of every 1000 children born in Teotonio Vilela, 377 died before completing one year during the first half of 1994. Statistics show that 80% of the children died of diarrhea and dehydration and a further 15% died from lung infections. "These diseases could have been avoided if malnutrition and hunger were not rampant" commented Eugenio Costa Melo secretary of health in the town. The average mortality rate for children in the rest of the north-east of Brazil where Teotonio Vilela is situated is 70 per 1000 during the first year of life.

- The Candelaria massacre: 4 will be tried by jury.

Almost a year after the Candelaria massacre when eight street children were massacred, judge Maria Lucia Capiberibe decided on June 29 to have four accused tried by jury. Three of the four are military police-men - Marcelo Ferreira Cortes, Marcos Vinicius Borges Emmanuel and Claudio Luiz Andrade dos Santos; the fourth accused is Jurandir Gomes de Franca. The four who have been under custody since last August will probably be tried by jury in October.

Having examined the evidence, judge Capiberibe decided that there was ample proof of their involvement in the massacre. She decreed that they remain in prison and commented that "there is a significant probability that more military and civil police were involved in the massacre".

WOMEN'S ISSUES

- Women suffer more from misery in Brazil.

The committees of the anti-hunger campaign which have been functioning now for several months are discovering a new side to Brazilian misery according to a report in the "Jornal do Brasil" of July 03. Families who are below the poverty line for the most part have women as heads of the households.

The report quotes an example from Sao Paulo. In the Jardim Kagohara neighborhood, of the 36 families registered with the anti-hunger campaign committee, 20 have women as heads of the household. Statistics also show that women earn less than men. According to data published by the State System for the Analysis of Data (SEADE) the average monthly salary for white males in Sao Paulo is US $526 and of white females US $299. On average negro males earn US $279 and negro females US $169. When couples separate and the woman takes on responsibility for the children, the standard of living drops significantly. Each day 500 cases of violence against women such as rape and beatings are registered in Brazil.

HEALTH ISSUES

- According to government report Brazil was never so ill.

A recent report from the Health Ministry shows an alarming return of illnesses which were thought to be under control in Brazil. Another alarming trend is the sharp rise in infant mortality. Malnutrition affects 32 million people or almost a quarter of the population according to the report which goes on to say that "the droughts, the lack of sewerage systems and running water as well as hunger have impoverished the resistence mechanism of a large part of the population leaving such people more vulnerable to epidemics".

During 1993 alone, 530 thousand cases of malaria were registered in the country as well as 5 million cases of Chagas disease, 200 thousand cases of leprosy and 100 thousand cases of tuberculosis. During 1994, 39 thousand cases of cholera have been registered causing 292 deaths, the spread of dengue has caused panic in Fortaleza, State of Ceara and with 52 thousand diagnosed cases provoking 20 thousand deaths until this point in time, AIDS is sharply on the increase.

RACE ISSUES

- Studies show racial prejudice is still common in Brazil.

According to all indicators, there is a wide gap between the myth of racial democracy and the reality in Brazil. An article in the "Estado de Sao Paulo" on July 03 says that experts in this area claim that Brazilians are ashamed to accept that preconceptions exist in the area of race. According to Maria Luiza Tucci Carneiro, professor in the History Department of the University of Sao Paulo "what is worse is that such people practice discrimination each day in hidden forms".

Carneiro launches a book on the topic within the next few days entitled "O Racismo na Historia do Brasil - Mito e Realidade" ("Racism in the History of Brazil - Myth and Reality"); this is the third book she has published on the topic. The book is prepared for high school students and shows what has happened in the area of racial discrimination and prejudice in Brazil since colonial times.

Figures from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and statistics (IBGE) support Carneiro's conclusions. According to the "Map of the Work-market of Brazil" published by the IBGE last March the average income for white people is approximately twice that of black people. SOS Racismo (Racism) which is a 6 year old NGO, carried out a survey in the courts of Sao Paulo and discovered that during the last 40 years there has not been a case where someone has been condemned for the crime of racism.

ECOLOGY

- Mega irrigation project on the Sao Francisco river is being used to elect candidates.

The mega irrigation project on the river Sao Francisco which was announced a few months ago and is budgeted to cost US $2 billion is being used by various candidates in their election campaign according to an article in the "Jornal do Brasil" on July 11. According to the project large areas of the drought plagued States of Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraiba, Ceara and Rio Grande do Norte will be irrigated by water diverted from the river Sao Francisco.

If very little has yet been done to get the project started, the contrary is true of local politicians seeking election next October who have begun to flood the local population with propaganda about the project each claiming ownership of the irrigation scheme. The region in question has just experienced one of the worst periods of drought during this century and so the politicians are selling the project idea to mayors, election agents and local leadership as the "redemption of the north-east".

Until a week ago the champion in the use of propaganda of the project was federal deputy Marcondes Gadelha of the PFL party of Pernambuco who is seeking re-election. He has distributed thousands of hand-outs and posters where he links himself with the irrigation project. Former governor of the PMDB, Ronaldo Cunha Lima, who is running for the senate defends the project in all his public meetings. Candidates for state deputy from the same party, Arnobio Viana and Gilvan Freire have distributed thousands of copies of their speeches in the state legislature defending the project.

However it was Gadelha's campaign which drew most attention. Biologist Paulo Francincetti, president of the Friends of Nature in the State of Paraiba (APAN) sent some of Gadelha's election posters to the federal state procurator, Antonio Lins, who decided to open an inquiry about abusive electoral propaganda.

In the State of Rio Grande do Norte the project is the principal theme in the speeches of Henrique Eduardo Alves candidate for federal deputy as well as in the speeches of Carlos Eduardo Alves (candidate for state deputy) and Garibaldi Alves Filho (candidate for state governor). The first is a son and the other two are nephews of Minister Aluizio Alves of the Ministry of Regional Integration who convinced President Itamar Franco to approve the project. In the State of Ceara, the project is being used widely by the PSDB party to which the Minister for Planning, Beni Veras belongs. Veras has been a firm supporter of Alves in his attempt to get funds to start the project. At least 18 other major irrigation projects in the north-east have been abandoned because of lack of funds.

- Recent ecology news.

The following is a summary of the news items carried by the principal Brazilian newspapers during recent days dealing with ecology. The date is given for each summary and the newspapers are identified as follows:

FSP = Folha de Sao Paulo.

GL = O Globo.

GM = Gazeta Mercantil.

JB = Jornal do Brasil.

OESP = O Estado de Sao Paulo.

July 02, 1994.

- The World Bank made available a grant to the Intermunicipal Consortium of the Piracicaba and Capivari River Valleys for the clean-up of the rivers. The total cost of the project will be in the region of US $275 million. (OESP).

- The Northeastern Ecology Society sent a letter to President Itamar Franco requesting the suspension of the Sao Francisco mega irrigation project. According to the letter, the project should not start until the local population has had a chance to discuss it or before an environmental impact study has been carried out. The letter lists other reasons why the project should at least be temporally suspended including the fact that 18 important irrigation projects in the same region have not been finished because of lack of funds. (JB).

- A ferry carrying 200 tons of CM30, a product used in the manufacture of asphalt, sunk in early June in a river in Roraima and until this point in time the product has not been taken out of the river. Because of this the risk factor of a serious contamination of many of the rivers in the Amazonian region is very high. (FSP).

Atmospheric pollution continues high in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In some parts of the city it is three time the acceptable level. (GL).

July 03.

- The possibility that President Itamar Franco will go ahead with the sao Francisco mega irrigation project is becoming less likely. Even Minister Aluizio Alves, the chief defender of the project, has admitted that the project is unlikely to be carried out. (GL).

July 04.

- The Minister for Planning, Beni Veras and the President of the National Council for Food Security, Bishop Mauro Morelli announced measures to be taken to combat the misery in the northeast which is responsible for the extremely high rate of infant mortality in the region. (JB).

- An advertisement in the "Jornal do Brasil" paid for by the Rohm and Hass company, defends Dithame PM. This agro-toxic which was freed for use and later prohibited, recently caused a polemic in the south of Brazil when IBAMA allowed its use without the necessary federal authorization. The company claims that it will present international studies of the product to request the sale of the product once again in Brazil.

July 05.

- The Justice Ministry in Sao Paulo plans a number of court cases which should significantly modify dumping sites in the 39 municipalities which comprise the Greater Sao Paulo region. Inadequate sites and collection are seen as the chief problems. (GM).

July 07.

- The Rodhia chemical industry which has a factory in the southern region of the city of Sao Paulo is being accused by the Trade Union of Workers in the Chemical Industries of Sao Paulo of negligence in the health question of their workers. According to the trade union workers in the factory have been subject to poisoning by toxic substances. (OESP).

- The Kibon ice-cream factory is receiving daily fines because it did not install pollution control equipment within the established time limit in the program which controls pollution of the River Tiete.

July 09.

- The recent edition of the Brazilian Catalogue of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering shows that 69% of the Brazilian population or 105 million people do not have access to any kind of a public sewerage system and 33% of the population does not have treated water. According to the Catalogue, such figures explain when put alongside other data why diseases are on the rise in the country. (OESP).

- The Minister for Mines and Energy, Alexis Stephanenko, announced that the government plans to restart the construction of the Angra 11 nuclear station. The construction was started in 1976 and US $5.2 billion has already been spent on the project. According to the Minister, the Congress already granted the US $1.5 billion necessary for the conclusion of the station. The coordinator of the Greenpeace anti-nuclear campaign, Ruy de Goes, said that the amount granted by Congress is not sufficient to complete the project and he considers strange the announcement by the Minister as the present government is coming to an end. Both leading candidates in the presidential campaign have declared that they are against the project. (GL).

July 10.

- Between the generation of energy and its use, 40.2 billion kilowatts are wasted in Brazil. This is the equivalent of almost half of the energy generated at the mega hydro-electric dam in Itaipu. The reasons for the waste are numerous and range from errors in measurement to lack of conservation of the system. In financial terms the loss represents US $2 billion each year. If nothing is done to combat this loss, it could amount to US $5.5 billion by the year 2015. (OESP).

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