e Paz).

Number 211, January 11, 1996.

SOCIAL ISSUES

- Brazil's social debt.

During the last few weeks the "Folha de Sao Paulo" has

carried a number of reports on social conditions in Brazil. On

January 08 the report dealt with Brazil's social debt to its own

population. Using two important social indicators - housing and

basic sanitation, the Folha shows how the social debt has become

huge - an investment of approximately US $80 billion would be

needed to solve the deficit in both of these areas.

According to the report there is a deficit of approximately

6.4 million houses in Brazil today. This includes 3.3 million new

houses and the reforms needed in a further 3.1 million. If the

housing deficit were to be eliminated the cost would be in the

region of US $50.7 billion. 4.7 million families who earn less

than US $500 per month are lacking houses. Just to attend the

housing needs of this segment of the population would cost US $26

billion. During 1996 the government plans to spend US $2.8

billion on housing.

The deficit is also huge in the area of basic sanitation.

4.2 million houses in Brazil do not have water on tap and a

further 8.9 million are not linked to a sewerage system or do not

have a septic tank. Amongst families who earn up to US $200 per

month, 3.4 million do not have running water in their houses. In

the same income bracket 5.1 million are not linked to sewerage

systems or septic tanks. To eliminate the deficit in the basic

sanitation area an investment of US $25 billion would need to be

made during the next 15 years - US $19 billion to put running

water in the houses and US $6 to link them to sewerage systems.

The federal government spent US $549 million in this area during

1995. The government plans to spend US $1.5 billion on projects

in this area during 1996.

A report in the Folha on January 03 shows how the federal

government's spending favors better off segments of the

population and not those who need more attention. The government

spends more for example on meal tickets for its million employees

than for school meals for the 30 million students who are

attending school - US $750 million will be spent on

functionaries' meals and US $600 million on school meals in

public schools. Functionaries working in the judicial area are

demanding US $80 million for dental treatment (approximately US

$1092 each) during 1996. Meanwhile the Ministry for Health will

spend an average of US $53 per Brazilian during the year in its

public health programs.

seen in the investment of the federal government in the area of

education. Approximately 48% (US $3.9 billion) will be spent on

third level education which is available in large part only to

the better off. US $60 thousand will be spent during the year on

the eradication of illiteracy in the country.

A report on December 25 in the "Folha" analyzed the

distribution of income and other key social statistics in Brazil.

The report is based on a study of the Brazilian Institute of

Geography and Statistics (IBGE) of the 1991 census. In absolute

numbers according to the statistics there were 779.995 heads of

households earning at least US $2000 during that year. If the

IBGE calculations are accepted which estimate that since 1991 the

population has increased by 6.8%, this would mean that currently

there are approximately 833.034 heads of households in this

income bracket. On the other hand the number of heads of families

who declared that they had no income in the 1991 census amounted

to 1.375.134. If this number is readjusted according to the

population growth since 1991, the number today would be

approximately 1.486.643 heads of households. The great majority

of heads of households earn up to US$300 per month - 27.357.419

(29.217.723 if the 6.8% population increase since 1991 be taken

into account) or 78.76% of the total.

According to the IBGE, the average number of persons per

household is 4.06 in urban areas and 4.69 in rural areas. Amongst

poorer segments of the population there tends to be a larger

number of persons per household. In Amazonas for example, 10.73%

of the heads of households declared that they had no income in

the 1991 census. In that region the average number of persons per

household in rural areas is 5.12 and 4.59 in urban areas. The

head of such a household in Amazonas is worse off than such a

person in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. There the

average number of persons per household in rural areas is 3.93

and 3.56 in urban areas. However, Amazonas is not the worst off

state when heads of households without income are tabulated. In

Roraima, 17.63% of heads of households found themselves in this

situation in 1991. If a general national average of 4.38 persons

per household be multiplied by the number of families receiving

up to US $300 per month

, it can then be estimated that

approximately 127.900.000 or 82.1% of the total population of

Brazil lives in such households.

According to the data published in the Folha report,

almost a quarter of the entire population do not have a bathroom

in their houses. Again in poorer regions the number of households

without a bathroom is larger. In Maranhao, 72.35% of the houses

do not have a bathroom, the figure for Piaui is 64.18%, for

Tocantins it is 70.95% and for Acre it is 66.31%. The national

average stands at 24.61%.

Rio de Janeiro is the state where the largest number of

women over 35 years of age registered as heads of households are

found - 26.73%. The national average is 21.65%. In second place

comes the State of Sergipe - 26.26%. The average for the north

eastern region of households where women are registered as the

head is 23%. Here many women are forced to take on this role due

to the large number of men who migrate, many on a temporary

basis, to the south in search of employment. The Folha report

commenting on the high number of women as heads of households in

Rio de Janeiro speculates that this is probably because such a

situation is more culturally acceptable there.

The report examines the situation in two states -

Maranhao and Piaui and concludes that the influence of a small

number of politically strong families and the concentration of

land in the hands of a few owners in large part provokes critical

social conditions there. 48.77% of the population of these two

states is illiterate. Approximately 65% of the houses in Piaui

and 72.35% in Maranhao do not have bathrooms. In Piaui families

such as the Gaioso Freitas, Silva and Portella Nunes have

controlled the political power for decades. At the moment the

Piaui senators are from these families. In Maranhao the powerful

political families during the last thirty years have been the

Bacelar, Dutra, Saboia and Sarney. Jose Sarney, a member of the

latter family is a former Brazilian president and present

president of the senate. His daughter is governor of the State of

Maranhao and his son is a federal deputy.

POLITICS

- Evaluation of 1995.

The following is the translation of an article by Luis

Inacio Lula da Silva published by the "Folha de Sao Paulo" on

December 31. Lula, a former president of the Workers' Party (PT)

was the chief opponent of Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the 1994

presidential elections.

The government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso has completed

its first year with its credibility scratched and very little to

show to the people. The Sivam case (a scandal currently raging

concerning corruption in the installation of a radar system in

the Amazon) and the "red file" (a file found in the recently

bankrupt Economico bank listing large sums given to politicians

in the 1990 election) cast very heavy suspicions on holders of

public office who strangely are neglecting to clarify what

happened. But a complete balance of the last twelve months point

to more serious facts than phone tapping and power jockeying

amongst allies of the President's office.

During 1995, the government spent badly public moneys and

also unbalanced the state finances during a year when taxes gave

the largest ever income to the government. How could it manage to

do such a thing? By paying more than US $20 billion of public

money to fortunate national and international investors. (Note:

Here he refers to aid given by the federal government to banks

which had serious financial difficulties during the year).

We need to recognize that those who govern us were extremely

efficient in economizing in the area of health, education,

investments in infrastructure and all the social programs. These

areas received less than the money paid to banks. One has only to

travel on a federal road during the present holiday season or

visit a public hospital to notice this.

And the Comunidade Solidaria program (the government social

program) made plenty of noise but spent only the modest sum of US

$800 million which amounts to US $25 during the year or US $2.08

per month for each of the 32 million Brazilians who are under the

line of absolute poverty. It would scarcely buy a lollypop for

each one. And the government will close the year with a public

debt of US $110 billion which is more than double the debt in

December of 1994.

But the government was generous with the bank owners who

apart from high interest rates got US$13 billion to help banks in

difficulty. Two banks alone - the Economico and the Nacional got

US$8 billion from the Central Bank. This amount would be

sufficient to settle 200 thousand landless families instead of

the ridicuously low number of 15 thousand which INCRA (the

government land agency) settled during the entire year.

Apart from all this money, the financial authorities of the

government set up a special financing program to help with the

merger of banks called Proer, which is available to such groups

at interest rates of 2% per year. It is sufficient then to own a

large bank and to become interested in a merger with a bank

experiencing financial difficulties. To please the rural deputies

the government used US $7 billion to set up a special line of

credit. Here the interest rates are like those charged by a

father to his son - 3% per year plus the percentage change

experienced by the minimum price system. Very little of this

credit will end up in the hands of small property owners.

Why does the government not offer money at interest

rates of 2% per year to finance the thousands of consumers who

are late with their payments and are paying between 10% and 15%

per month? Why did it not offer cheap rate loans to small and

medium sized business people so that they could pay their debts

and invest in production? Why did it not set aside money to

finance houses for thousands of Brazilians who pay rent, live in

shanty towns or under bridges? It is not difficult to imagine the

answer.

The high interest rates which have become the chief source

of support for of the Real Plan (the economic plan of July 1994)

discouraged production and encouraged a growth rate insufficient

to generate riches and the necessary number of jobs for the

country. For these and other reasons, 1995 will close with an

employment level less than December 1994. In the greater Sao

Paulo area alone 1.1 million workers will start 1996 looking for

a job.

With a good parliamentary majority in Congress the

government could have undertaken the necessary constitutional

reforms which would consolidate the stability of the country and

get rid of the exchange anchor which causes unemployment and

damages various industrial segments. However the government

omitted a reform of the social security and tax systems both of

which favors its allies.

It added insult to injury by lowering instead of increasing

income tax for the rich eliminating a rate of up to 35% per

person. It can be asked why the government of Fernando Henrique

Cardoso did not engage itself in a open discussion with social

segments really interested in reforms in the country. Why is it a

prisoner of a conservative alliance which immobilizes and impedes

it in carrying out the transformations necessary for the advance

of Brazilian society? It is indeed its own allies who are

interested in maintaining their ancient privileges and leaving

things as they are.

However it was abroad that the government of Fernando

Henrique Cardoso did its best work during 1995. We have to

recognize that no government never tried so hard to please the

international community and to speak their language. It was

indeed the first Brazilian government in several years which

carried out every detail of the demands of the International

Monetary Fund. As a start it broke the principal state monopolies

and created special opportunities for lucrative trading with

privatizations. Then it exposed the Brazilian economy to foreign

products giving as a present an excellent undervalued exchange

rate and consequently creating jobs - abroad.

It allowed the free movement of speculative capital which

found its way here to enjoy magnificent interest rates which

cannot be found in any other part of the world. It pleased

international creditors not only by depositing punctually

payments of the foreign debt but also by anticipating such

payments as happened in October. Finally it finished the year by

giving a fine Christmas present to Clinton, to the Pentagon, to

the CIA and to the other friends of the Raytheon company

defending with teeth and nails the extremely doubtful Sivam

project.

If in the coming year the government of Fernando Henrique

Cardoso does half as much for Brazil as it did in 1995 for the

bank owners and for the international community, I am absolutely

certain that we will have a happy 1996.

LAND ISSUES

- Landless families contest government figures.

The Movement of Rural Landless Workers (MST) contested the

government's figures of families settled in agrarian reform

projects during 1995. According to the government, 42 thousand

families were settled last year. The MST, using INCRA (the

government land agency) figures claims that the total comes to

only 12.263. According to the MST "settlement" in their

definition and in the definition of organizations working for an

agrarian reform means giving access to land to families who had

not previously such access. In his election campaign, President

Fernando Henrique Cardoso had promised to settle 40 thousand

landless families during 1995 - his first year in office.

The MST claims that the figure given by the government

includes families who were settled for a number of years but only

had their situation legalized during 1995. The organization

points to examples of such families in the State of Paraiba who

have been settled for the last fifteen years and in the State of

Maranhao where families included in the official figure have been

settled for the last eight years. According to the MST, 31.619

families are currently living in extremely precarious conditions

in provisional camps in many parts of Brazil.

Meanwhile, the MST in the State of Sao Paulo announced a

huge march of the landless on a date to be yet announced to the

state capital. The organization at state level considers that the

agreement made with Governor Mario Covas to settle 1050 families

in the Pontal de Paranapanema region by the end of 1995 was not

carried out. Governor Covas offered 1315 provisional lots to the

landless families. The MST in Sao Paulo claims that the agreement

was to provide conditions for the permanent settlement of the

families. The MST in other states is also currently discussing

the possibility of organizing landless marches.

CHURCHES

- An "unholy" war.

What a number of journalists have dubbed as an "unholy" war

became one of the chief item in the press, radio and TV headlines

during the last ten days or so of 1995. It stared with a news

item shown by the Globo television network reporting on supposed

irregularities in the Brazilian evangelical Church known as the

Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. The weekly "Isto E"

carried a similar report in its edition of December 27. Since

then this news item has returned consistently to the news

headlines.

The Church was founded in Brazil in the late 1970s by Edir

Macedo and over the years attracted members to its huge

strategically placed temples by promises of miracles and

financial success. Financial success has been a feature of the

Church in a few short years. It purchased the Record TV system

and a string of radio stations as well as setting up its own

bank. Because of its' status as a Church, the radio and TV

stations as well as its other properties and investments are

exempt from tax. It was little wonder then that this would gain

the attention of one of its TV rivals - Globo. In recent months

the Church had gained unfavorable press when one of its bishops -

Sergio Von Helde kicked a statue of the Catholic Patroness of

Brazil, Nossa Senhora Aparecida. This aggression took place

during a TV show on Record on the feast-day of the Brazilian

patroness in mid October. This together with denouncements of a

founding pastor of the Universal Church, Carlos Magno de Miranda,

that many doubtful financial practices were prevalent in the

Church, provided the ingredients for the recurring negative news

headlines.

Miranda provided a tape and documents to Globo which

indicated that the financial practices of the Universal Church

were less than orthodox. The tape shows Edir Macedo in a session

with pastors from his Church. In his talk to the pastors, Macedo

puts supreme emphasis on the financial contributions which the

members of the Church make. He goes on to teach methods of

extracting more money from the Church members. Others scenes from

the tape showed Macedo and some of the pastors in a luxurious

holiday resort where expenses were paid for by the Church.

Another scene showed the pastors dancing and betting - both

practices are forbidden by the Church. In another scene bishop

Honorilton Goncalves who is a well known show host today on

Record threatens to remove his clothes for the camera. In one of

the most damming scenes, Goncalves jokes with fellow pastor and

federal deputy Laprovita Vieira (Rio de Janeiro) about a factory

which the deputy purchased. He insinuates that the factory was

bought with funds from a non declared account.

It is indeed the financial accountability of the Church

which is likely to provide most headaches for it in the near

future. In making his denouncements, Miranda accuses the Church

of having a parallel accounting system. He claims that a

significant part of the money paid for the Record TV station came

from a major drug dealer in Columbia. He says that he and a

number of other members of the Church were sent there to collect

the money. The station cost the Universal Church a reported US

$45 million. With a down-payment of US $15 million, Macedo was in

difficulty in raising a loan to pay the remainder. He entered in

contact with the recently elected President Fernando Collor who

as yet had not assumed the office of president. According to

reports in the "Folha de Sao Paulo" (December 30) Collor

requested his financial adviser, P.C. Farias, to resolve the

problem. In a few days the TV station had been paid for. It is

necessary here to recall that Collor was impeached and Farias was

jailed in large part due to their financial practices.

According to the same edition of the Folha the federal tax

office is now insisting that the Universal Church pay tax on its

income during the last five years and the Procurator General of

the Republic, Geraldo Brindeiro, has requested the federal police

to open three separate investigations to discover if the Church

or its founder are guilty of crimes. Only activities such as the

maintenance of the temples and charitable works will be exempt

from tax. An investigation for tax purposes will be extended as

well to the 30 bishops and the approximately 7 thousand pastors

of the Church. According to documents supplied by Carlos Magno

Miranda, each of the pastors apart from fixed salaries receive 5%

of the income of the temple where they work. Figures for 1990

show how such amounts can be large. For the month of October 1990

each of the two pastors of the temple on the Avenida Celso Garcia

in the city of Sao Paulo earned US $67 thousand free of tax.

Since the denouncements have hit the headlines, many of the

members of the Universal Church have attempted to receive back

moneys and properties donated earlier. An example is lawyer

Grigore Avaram Valeriu who was a member of the Church between

1988 and 1992. He recently brought a court case against the

Universal Church to receive back six apartments, three shops,

cars, shares and family jewelry which he donated to the Church.

Meanwhile, the other Churches have remained clear of the

battle being raged principally between the Universal Church and

Globo. Accusations and counter accusations are passing between

Record and Globo. Many agree that the Universal Church may have

much to answer for but that the dispute has become an "unholy"

war.

CHILDREN'S ISSUES

- Who profits with child labor?

In recent weeks news items announcing that a number of

companies plan to make concerted efforts to eliminate child labor

from all stages of production have been carried by the media.

Well known names such as Volkswagen and the shoe industry in

Franca, State of Sao Paulo have promised to participate in this

campaign.

Approximately 3.5 million children under 14 years of age

work in Brazil. More than 70% of them earn only US $50 per month.

Other children and adolescents work in semi slave conditions

receiving no salary and often working as many as 12 hours per

day. Many work in unhealthy conditions and help to supply raw

materials for large and well known industries. Examples include

the furnaces which provide charcoal for the steel industry which

in turn supplies parts for the car industry; in the harvesting of

sugar cane many children cut up to two tons daily which is used

in the production of alcohol by the national petroleum company,

Petrobras; in the shoe industries where they come in contact with

highly poisonous glues or harvesting oranges which are used by

multinational companies to produce juice for export. In most

cases such children do not go to school. Many suffer health

problems as a consequence of their work; an example are the youth

and children picking oranges and who are forced to carry hundreds

of kilos of fruit each day - very soon they suffer from back

problems. Some companies do not know the conditions in which

their raw material is produced and are scarcely interested in

this information. Other simply close their eyes to what is

happening.

Approximately 3.6 million adolescents in Brazil in the 11 to

17 age bracket are illiterate. Illiteracy is higher in rural

areas. The school drop-out rate is third on a world scale. In

large part all of this is due to the fact that most such youth

leave school to work and improve the already meager income of

their families. In many cases such children are occupying the

space of unemployed adults who would find work if such child

labor were eliminated.

For this reason the Abrinq Foundation for Children's' Rights

has started a campaign which hopes to achieve the following:

- The presentation of a law project which would oblige all

companies which take part in supplying goods or services to the

government or receiving government financial support to not

accept children as part of their labor force.

- To publicize production information of certain products and

thus get an undertaking from company owners to force their

suppliers to eliminate child labor and to set up a project which

will encourage such children to remain in school and take part in

professional courses. Thus ethical and social criteria as well as

quality should be demanded by companies of their suppliers.

(Source : Article entitled "Quem lucra com o trabalho infantil"

by Oded Grajew in the "Folha de Sao Paulo", January 08, 1996.)

VIOLENCE

- Violent massacres in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The last hours of 1995 and the early days of 1996 saw yet

more violent massacres in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. During

the early hours of December 31 four youth were assassinated in

Sao Mateus (eastern region of the city of Sao Paulo). This was

the 49th. massacre registered in Sao Paulo during 1995 - 167

people were assassinated in such massacres. The local police are

suspicious that the massacre was related to drug trafficking.

On the night of January 02 and during the early hours of the

following day 11 people were assassinated in three separate

massacres in Rio de Janeiro and 3 in Sao Paulo. Police again

suspect that drug trafficking provoked the massacres.

In our November 30 edition we reported that Caio Ferraz,

founder of the Casa da Paz (Peace House) following the massacre

in the Vigario Geral shanty town (city of Rio de Janeiro) in 1993

was being threatened and had gone into hiding. He accused the

police of being responsible for the numerous death threats which

he had received. Ferraz, who is a sociologist, will now take on a

teaching post and will be involved in research in the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. According to

newspaper reports Amnesty International will offer him financial

support to move to Boston. He plans to remain in the US for a

number of years and claims that his decision to leave Brazil was

significantly influenced by the fact that he was not offered

protection against the death threats.

ECOLOGY

- Licensing for the Hidrovia in March.

In recent months we have carried various reports of the

proposed construction of a Hidrovia (Waterway) which would

connect Argentina and the Pantanal region of Brazil. Numerous

NGOs have warned that such a project would cause ecological

disaster especially in Brazil and Paraguay. It would also provoke

very serious social and economic problems especially to

indigenous groups in the region. We reproduce below the

translation of an article by Glen Switkes of the International

Rivers Network in California which claims that as early as next

March the Argentenian government plans to undertake the

construction of the Waterway in its territory.

ARGENTINA WILL OPEN BIDDING FOR HIDROVIA ENGINEERING WORKS IN

MARCH, 1996

1,722 KM of the upper Parana and the Paraguay River will be

affected

Source: Semanario Busqueda, Montevideo 12/28/95

In March, Argentina will put out a call for bids for

engineering works part of the Paraguay-Parana Hidrovia along a

navigable stretch of 1,722 km of the Parana and Paraguay Rivers

north of Santa Fe. The bids will call for construction of the

shipping channel and placement of buoys, in exchange for the

right to charge still undefined tolls.

With this new call, the Argentine Directorate of Port and

Navigable Waterways Construction is pressing forward with the

Hidrovia Paraguay-Parana project being undertaken by the five

countries of the La Plata Basin.

Spokesmen for this government agency said that once these

works are undertaken, Argentina will have concluded the stretch

of the Hidrovia within its national territory, having already

licensed the stretch between Santa Fe and the Atlantic Ocean.

The terms of the bidding will be ready in the first half of

February, and it is hoped that work may begin before the end of

1996.

The Port Directorate estimates that the cost of opening the

channel will be $28 million dollars and that maintenance will

cost $15 million dollars annually. From Santa Fe, the project

would go until Asuncion (km. 1620) and to km. 1927 on the Parana

River. This would include three sub-stretches with different

characteristics: the Middle Parana, 655 km in length; the Upper

Parana, 687 km long and the lower Paraguay, 380 km long.

According to preliminary studies, it would be necessary to

dredge at 20 sites with sandy soil and two with rocky material.

In terms of buoys, it is projected to place a signal every 500 m

in critical passes, and every 3 km along the rest of the

navigable course. Also, instruments for satellite positioning

are being studied which will minimize navigation errors.

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

- Newsletters of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI).

Newsletter n. 190

DECREE 22/91 IS BEING JUDGED

A new maneuver to amend Decree 22/91 is being adopted. Bothered

with the delay of the minister of Justice, Nelson Jobim, the

corporation Sattin S.A. Agropecuaria e Imoveis adopted a new strategy

and requested that the injunction it filed at the Supreme Federal

Court continue to be judged. The company argues that the decree is

unconstitutional because it does not provide for the adversary system,

which benefits invaders of Indian lands in demarcation procedures. The

company is protesting against the demarcation of the Sete Cerros

Indian area of the Guarani-Kaiowa Indians in the state of Mato Grosso

do Sul, comprising 9 thousand hectares. Since December of last year,

the judgement has been suspended several times, the first of which at

the initiative of the Supreme Court itself, which requested the

opinion of the Office of the Attorney General on the matter and in the

last eight months at the request of the Sattin corporation, which

asked minister Nelson Jobim to amend the decree.

On December 13, the Supreme Court once again referred the case to

the Office of the Attorney General for its opinion on the

constitutionality of the decree. The opinion of the Attorney General,

Geraldo Brindeiro, will only be issued after the vacation of the

courts, in February or March, which may or not be accepted by the

Supreme Court. Sattin and the minister of Justice hope that the

opinion of the Attorney General will endorse the constitutionality of

the decree. Indian organizations and different entities and NGOs will

remain mobilized to make sure the Office of the Attorney general and

the Supreme Court take into due account how harmful the decision can

be. Their position is based on a legal thesis defended by Cimi,

according to which the adversary system cannot be provided for in the

decree, as it renders it unconstitutional.

Determined to meet the interests of invaders of Indian lands, the

government is preparing a new offensive, namely, requesting Funai to

propose the inclusion of the adversary system in the bill that

provides for the Statute of Indian Societies, whose approval by the

National Congress has been pending for four years.

ENTITIES HOLD NATIONAL MOURNING DAY FOR THE LAND REFORM

The National Forum for Land Reform and Justice in Rural Areas

held, on December 20th, the National Day in support of the Land reform

in Brazil, which was marked by demonstrations aimed at pressuring the

authorities to carry out the Land Reform and at denouncing the

violence which legitimizes the concentration of the land in the

country. In a note distributed in Brasilia, the Forum, which includes

Cimi's participation, has been denouncing the very weak action of the

government in this area this year, because contrarily to what it has

been announcing, it did not even settle the 40 thousand families it

had promised to.

The worsening of the crisis in rural areas can be clearly

perceived in bloody conflicts such as the one in Corumbiara and in the

imprisonment of landless leaders. The Forum believes that the land

reform should not take the form of a compensatory policy aimed at

alleviating social pressures. Therefore, it will continue to call on

the organized civil society to keep on fighting for democracy in the

land and in the Brazilian society.

Brasilia, December 21st, 1995

BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT ALTERS BASIS OF INDIAN LAND RIGHTS

(DECREE 22/91)

======================================================

CIMI, the Brazilian Church agency for indigenous affairs, publicly

repudiates the change to Decree 22/91, announced in the early evening

of 8 January by the presidential spokesperson, Sergio Amaral. CIMI

consideres this action an attack on the constitutional rights of

Brazil's indigenous peoples and a violent act of disregard for

protests by indigenous peoples, public figures, and individuals and

organisations who support the indigenous communities. Throughout 1995

messages have come from all over Brazil and from abroad opposing the

change. The change to Decree 22/91 includes the introduction of the

right of challenge to the declaration of an indigenous reserve, which

benefits the invaders of indigenous areas, and also provides for the

review of the boundaries of some areas.

On 5 January President Fernando Henrique Cardoso suspended the

announcement of the package of indigenous measures and ask for the

measures to be announced gradually. As a result, the Brazilian

Official Gazette of 8 January appeared merely with the annoucment of

the confirmation of protected status (homologation) for 17 indigenous

areas in various parts of Brazil. The Brazilian press says that the

President's decision reflected the problems the measures are likely to

cause among the Brazilian military and international bodies.

The only indigenous areas whose boundaries are now immune from review

are those homologated and registered in the relevant land registries,

247 of the total of 554 indigenous territories in Brazil.

In interviews throughout 8 January, CIMI reaffirmed its opposition to

the new decree. It stressed in particular that the list of areas whose

protcted status is confirmed excludes a number which are the object of

political pressure, such as Raposa/Serra do Sol in Roraima. CIMI also

draws attention to the danger that the resources provided by the G7

countries for the demarcation of indigenous territories will now be

used instead to review their boundaries.

The staff of the Brazilian government indigenous agency, FUNAI, is

inadequate to deal with the volume of work the new decree will cause.

The Land Division, which deals with all processes involving the review

of areas, has onoy six anthropologists, and FUNAI's team of lawyers is

also inadequate.

In CIMI's view the direction given to indigenous policy by President

Cardoso's government violates the commitment the President gave to

indgenous leaders and organisations and anthropologists from all over

Brazil, to whom he made a promise to guarantee the rights of Brazil's

indigenous peoples and so redeem one of the Brazilian state's historic

obligations.

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