Number 247, October 03, 1996.

LAND ISSUES

- 45 die as a result of land violence during 1996.

According to a report released this week by the Land Pastoral Commission (CPT), between January 01 and September 20 last 45 people died in Brazil as a result of land violence. This number is greater than the total deaths in such circumstances during all of 1995 when 41 people were assassinated.

Para with a total of 31 assassinations during 1996 is the state where most deaths were registered. This total includes the 19 landless workers massacred by military police on April 17. The States of Amazonas, Bahia, Maranhao and Mato Grosso come in second place with three assassinations each. One assassination because of land problems took place in the States of Goias and Sergipe.

According to the executive secretary of the CPT, Vilmar Schneider, the data published in recent days shows that land conflicts are beginning to heat up once again. "Much more than rhetoric is needed to resolve land problems ... the government set up a ministry which places more emphasis on avoiding conflicts than in carrying out an agrarian reform" he commented. According to the CPT the reappearance of the UDR (a ranchers' militia) is capable of creating land violence such as happened during the 1980s. In 1985 for example there were 712 land conflicts which resulted in 139 deaths. In 1995, 554 such conflicts were recorded. Despite the consistent violence and frequent deaths only 51 people accused of assassinations in such circumstances have been brought to trial in the last 11 years. In all only 7 people were condemned - 2 of this number later escaped from prison according to the CPT.

- National Forum for Agrarian Reform and Rural Justice calls for action on the part of the Minister for Justice.

In a document sent to the Minister for Justice, Nelson Jobim, after its meeting on September 25 in Brasilia, the National Forum for Agrarian Reform and Rural Justice expressed its' concern at events which took place in recent weeks and called on the minister for urgent action. The Forum is composed of organizations recognized for their work and experience in rural areas such as the Movement for Landless Rural Workers (MST), the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), trade union organizations such as CONTAG and CUT, the Land Pastoral Commission (CPT) and the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI). We reproduce a translation of the document.

"A quick reading of the newspapers during recent days shows the efforts of trouble provoking sectors to re-articulate the action of large ranchers against the demand of Brazilian society for an immediate agrarian reform. Facts which took place in the Pontal do Paranapanema region where ranchers openly defied society and the State by arming themselves and publicly threatening landless workers; the recreation of the UDR; the destruction of the Eldorado Memorial Monument in Maraba, State of Para which was presented by Dr. Oscar Niemeyer to remember the victims of the massacre on April 17; the action of the secret service - P2, belonging to the military police of the Federal District and Parana and the assassination of Neire Reijane in Mae do Rio, State of Para; the paralysation of the state and federal authorities in the such areas indicate future conflicts of unknown dimensions.

It is unbelievable that in a society which presents itself daily as democratic, the public authorities cowardly keep quiet when the ranchers make threats and announce to the four winds plans to set up armed militia, gun-men injure a journalist of an important national TV channel and the authorities do nothing to put "the law in first place" - to use an expression frequently used to repress actions on the part of workers.

This is not the first time that spying services have been used by the military police within social grass-roots movements and has been denounced. The governments which came after the military dictatorship had never the courage to scrap the system of infiltration, spying and repression of workers which they inherited from the military governments. This is especially noticeable in the case of Parana which could not be defined as an 'intelligence' work - the stupidity of the mole shows how ridiculous this secret service is and that its' only objective is to control and repress workers' movements and the autonomous organization of society.

The Eldorado Memorial Monument is practically destroyed. Such a monument which remembers the massacre of April 17 is unacceptable for the large ranchers and land-grabbers of the south of Para. They see in that white stone designed by Dr. Oscar Niemeyer and offered to rural workers, a physical reminder of the accusation against them. Less than a month after its' inauguration which took place on September 07, their hired gun-men tried to destroy it. The attempt was not completely successful because a woman of the people hearing noise at dawn called the police and frightened the vandals. The ranchers of the south of Para were not content in massacring the workers. Through the recent gesture they want as well to assassinate the memory of workers who struggle for land.

The action of Minister Jungmann as head of the government policies for agrarian reform characterize him as farcical. Apart from the public disillusionment with his manner of being Minister (and this after so many months should have passed) - Jungmann carries out the sad and contradictory role of talking in favor of agrarian reform and working systematically to disqualify the principal actors in a process of agrarian reform: the landless workers and the trade union movement. The initiative of the minister to establish a Land Title is in all aspects a disaster. With this the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso plans to definitively convert INCRA (the government land agency) into the National Institute Against Agrarian Reform and transform it into the biggest land dealer in the world. Behind the Land Title proposal is a concept that Brazilian society should award ranchers and pay them high prices for their speculation with unused land so that it can be offered to the workers who will then make it productive.

Because of these facts the National Forum for Agrarian Reform and Rural Justice meeting today, September 25, in Brasilia request you to:

1. Disarm immediately large land owners in the entire country but urgently in the Pontal do Paranapanema region, State of Sao Paulo and in the South of the State of Para.

2. Carry out the necessary measures to abolish spying activities of the government secret service organizations in the grass-roots movements.

3. The cancellation of Law Decree 1775/96 and the prohibition of the activities of gold-miners and lumber merchants in indigenous areas.

4. To accuse and punish immediately those involved in the massacre of landless workers in Eldorado dos Carajas and Corumbiara as well as to explain to Brazilian society why new information indicates that 32 people died in the Eldorado massacre."

- Other land related news this week.

On September 28, the Minister for Land Policy, Raul Jungmann, dismissed the superintendent of INCRA (the government land agency) in the State of Para, Floriano Amorim. Amorim had criticized Incra in a newspaper interview a few days earlier when he called INCRA 'a nest of snakes'. Para has experienced extensive rural violence in recent months.

Approximately 700 landless workers occupied the Rancho Grande ranch in the municipality of Euclides da Cunha in the State of Sao Paulo during the early hours of September 29 and started to prepare the area for planting. In recent days the landless have been blocking the entrances to branches of the Banco do Brasil bank in the Pontal de Parapanema region protesting the delay in the bank freeing up government funds of US $2.2 million for the landless to plant various crops. Representatives of the UDR in the Pontal region informed MST leader Jose Rainha Jr on September 30 that the ranchers whom they represent are armed and ready to combat occupations with their militia.

The 'Folha de Sao Paulo' of October 03 reports that President Cardoso requested patience from the representatives of large rural producers for the question of land occupations by the landless at a dinner in his official residence in Brasilia on October 01. According to the report he was told that the patience of this class "was running out". The president of the National Agricultural Confederation (CNA) later commented to journalists "Our patience is coming to an end and it would be difficult to guarantee that soon there will not be some serious incident". According to the newspaper report he was referring more specifically to the situation in the Pontal de Paranapanema region of Sao Paulo.

News in recent days that the assassin of environmentalist Chico Mendes, Darli Alves da Silva, could be transferred back to Acre from Brasilia to complete his prison sentence met with numerous protests. Silva who recently was condemned for an earlier murder in the State of Parana has escaped from prison in Acre.

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

- Attacks on indians in Rondonia.

According to a report from the Indigenous Work Center (CTI) and the Socioenvironmental Institute (Instituto Socioambiental) rancher Hercules Gouveia Dalafini owner of the Modelo ranch in the municipality of Chupinguaia, in the south of the State of Rondonia expelled un-contacted indians from the area. The indians had a village within the ranch area. According to the report, the indians were attacked by gun-men and their village was subsequently destroyed. The rancher is also accused of making difficult the entry of FUNAI (the government indigenous agency) functionaries on to the ranch and of completely destroying the forest area where the village is said to have been located as well destroying crops which the indians had planted.

Aggression on the part of ranchers and lumber merchants against indians has been frequent for over 10 year in this region of Rondonia especially in the municipalities of Corumbiara and Chupinguaia. There are strong indications that a massacre of un-contacted indians took place in Chupinguaia. FUNAI functionaries estimated that the massacred group could have contained up to 25 members - no official inquiry was ever carried out. Initial contacts with a group of 7 Tupari indians provided information which indicated that 10 indians of this group had been killed in a gun-attack. This violence against the indians on the part of the ranchers is to ensure that documentation to their lands will not be contested; by law deeds are not given for areas where indian groups are found.

- Newsletter of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI).

Newsletter n. 230

COURTS SUSPEND CLOSING OF THE GATES OF SERRA DA MESA POWER PLANT

Federal Judge Marcelo Dolzany da Costa of the 1st Court of the state of Tocantins issued a preliminary order yesterday (September 30) suspending the closing of the gates to fill up the reservoir of the Serra da Mesa Power Plant in the state of Goias. In his ruling, Dolzany questioned the absence of an environmental license for the plant. The preliminary order was issued in reply to a writ of prevention filed by state attorneys Mario Lucio Freitas, of Tocantins, and Rosangela Posahl Batista, of Goias, and also by public prosecutor Jose Maria da Silva Junior, who detected irregularities in the Environmental Impact Report which prevent any attempt to control negative impacts caused by the power plant. Another strong irregularity was denounced by Cimi and is related to the absence of an authorization from the National Congress, since the plant covers 10% of the Ava-Canoeiro indigenous land and will cause impacts in all the region of the states of Goias and Tocantins.

The writ of prevention filed by the state attorneys preceded a Public Civil Action that will be brought against Furnas Centrais Eletricas, the state enterprise responsible for the consortium which is building the plant. Backed by the preliminary order which suspended the filling of the reservoir, Cimi and other entities which support indigenous rights will now concentrate their efforts in this Action, through which Furnas will be forced to settle all the irregularities which were detected. They will also demand that the consortium wait for the decision of the National Congress on the matter before continuing to build the plant. Cimi believes that no one should be allowed to disregard the Constitution, as this can be a very strong precedent. "We will take advantage of this moment to resume discussions on specific laws for the use of water resources in indigenous lands", said Saulo Feitosa, Cimi's executive secretary. An important instrument in this connection is the Statute of Indigenous Societies, which has been discussed at the National Congress for five years but has not been passed so far.

INDIGENOUS CANDIDATES TAKE PART IN ELECTIONS IN BRAZIL

Municipal elections will be held throughout Brazil, except in the Federal District, this Thursday, October 3. The participation of 82 indigenous candidates has been registered, five of whom are running for mayor, four for vice-mayor, and 73 for alderman in different parts of the country. This participation resulted from the need felt by indigenous peoples to occupy political spaces and fight the discrimination imposed by the non-indigenous society.

Most of these indigenous candidates are concentrated in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where 20 Indians from the Guarani-Kaiowa, Nandeva, and Terena peoples are running for aldermen in seven municipalities. In terms of number of candidates aspiring to hold posts in the executive branch, the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeast region of the country, ranks first, with three Indians running for mayor and three for vice-mayor. It is the state where 50% of the municipality of Sao Joao das Missoes is covered by the indigenous area of the Xacriaba people. The hope of electing an indigenous candidate is strongest in the state of Amapa, where Indian Galibi Marworno, Joao Neves dos Santos, is running for mayor under the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) in the municipality of Oiapoque, located in the extreme north of the country. Joao Neves is being supported by the governor of Amapa, Joao Capiberibe (PSB).

Brasilia, 1 October 1996

VIOLENCE

- Contraband arms from Paraguay supplies a large segment of Brazilian demand.

The U.S. government decided last week to suspend the exportation of arms to Paraguay due to pressure from the Brazilian government. Paraguay has been for some time a source the purchase of cheap and abundant arms for Brazilians. 70% of the illegal arms confiscated in Rio de Janeiro were bought in Paraguay. In recent days (September 28 and October 01) the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' published reports on the purchase of contraband arms in Paraguay.

One of the chief points of supply of arms from Paraguay to Brazil is the city of Pedro Juan Caballero. The border here between Brazil and Paraguay is an avenue which separates the latter city from Ponta Pora in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. In this Paraguayian city many of the arms used in land conflicts and areas of illegal gold-mining in Brazil have been purchased. The action of the federal police in the region is limited. Many dirt roads enter Paraguay from Brazil and many of the ranches on both sides of the border have landing strips often used by small planes not only in the transport of arms but also of drugs and other contraband products. Arms unloaded at these small landing strips are hidden in the midst of cargo carried by trucks to distant points of Brazil.

At weekends between 200 and 300 buses with up to 15 thousand people from Brazil visit Pedro Juan Caballero to purchase all kinds of contaband products. Most such products - even arms, are sold on the street even though there are also approximately 20 shops in the city which specialize in the sale of arms. On the streets boxes of ammunition cost in the region of US $10 to US $15 while in the shops the price is approximately US $25. Guns are sold on the streets for US $180 upwards.

The Folha report gives the example of a 9mm pistol which could be purchased on the streets for US $300 - the same model could be bought in the shops for US $500. Heavy arms such as an AR-15 used by drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro costs approximately US $2500 in Pedro Juan Cabellero and sells for US $5 thousand in Rio. Arms manufactured in Brazil whose sale is prohibited to non military people such as the 357 Magnum revolver are imported into Paraguay and can easily be purchased in the shops in Pedro Juan Cabellero. Records of the Brazilian Department of External Trade show that between July 1994 and April 1995, 21512 arms from two Brazilian manufacturers (Taurus and Rossi) were exported to Pedro Juan Cabellero.

- Crimes committed by military returned to civil courts.

The civil courts in Sao Paulo have begun to receive a flood of cases and inquires from the military courts where military police are accused of murder. Initial estimates places the number at approximately a thousand cases. The reason for this move was the publication on August 23 of a decision of the Supreme Justice Tribunal establishing the immediate transferral of cases to the civil courts of military police accused of the murder of civilians.

The law which gave this power to the civil courts was voted in the Congress and Senate in July last. Since then lawyers defending military police had been using court tactics to hinder the trial of such cases in civil courts. The transferral of such cases will decrease the work load of the military courts by between 10% and 20%. However this transferral is expected not only to speed up the judgment of such cases but also to result in the condemnation more military police.

A typical example is that of the massacre of prisoners in the Sao Lucas police station, situated in the eastern region of Sao Paulo in February 1989. Here 50 prisoners were locked into a small cell without air ducts. When the door of the cell was opened, 18 of the prisoners had died. In 1992, civil police men Celso Jose da Cruz and Jose Roberto were condemned - the former to 516 years of imprisonment later reduced to 54 years and the latter to 45 years and 6 months imprisonment. Until the present moment none of the military police denounced as also having being responsible for the deaths of the prisoners have had a date set for their trial.

- Brazil refuses U.S. anti-drug money.

Justice Minister, Nelson Jobim, officially announced to the U.S. ambassador in Brazil, Melvyn Levitsky, on October 01 that the Brazilian government declined to accept a US $600 thousand grant to be used in the combating of drug trafficking during 1997. Through a spokesperson of the ministry Minister Jobim commented "US $600 thousand is an amount which makes no real difference".

The national plan for drug prevention in Brazil has an annual budget of approximately US $500 million. US $150 million of this amount is used by the federal police in combating drugs; a further US $200 to $220 million goes to state police forces and government anti-drug campaigns. Some commentators felt that Brazil refused the U.S. grant because it is insignificant when compared to the anti-drug aid given to other countries. In the present fiscal year, Bolivia received US $50 million and 15 planes; Colombia was given 6 helicopters and US $30 million and US $31 million went to Peru. The refusal of the grant does not mean however that an anti-drug agreement between Brazil and the U.S. will be suspended. Agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency will remain in Brazil.

SOCIAL ISSUES

- City and State of Sao Paulo invest little in social areas.

In the budget proposal prepared for 1997 by the municipality of Sao Paulo more funds are reserved for the payment of debts than for critical social areas such as education, housing and transport. In the budget of the current year, 38.1% (US $2.336 billion) was reserved for social areas. The US $7.6 billion budget proposal was sent on September 30 by Mayor Paulo Maluf to the municipal legislature.

The proposal reserves US $902 million (11.8% of the total amount) for the payment of city debts. This is the second biggest item of the budget proposal following a US $1.18 billion to be reserved for health. The proposed amount to be reserved for housing is US $514.5 million. In June 1996 the total city debt stood at US $5.7 billion and is expected to reach US $6 billion by the end of the year.

The proposed 1997 budget for the State of Sao Paulo was also sent on September 30 to the state legislature. The total government spending during next year is expected to be US $35 billion. Basically the same patterns emerge in the state budget. For example the energy companies belonging to the state which will be privitized during 1997 will receive US $1.6 billion. Education and health together will receive only US $502 million. Questioned on the logic of such a high investment in energy and much less in the social areas, State Secretary for Planning, Andre Franco Montoro Filho commented "It's like selling a car - you need to do it up beforehand". The state budget foresees the spending of US $147 million on security, US $277 million on education and US $225 million on health during 1997. Following energy, the area which will receive the greatest investment is sanitation with a proposed budget of US $1.050 billion.

- Children's Pastoral has been indicated for Nobel prize.

Nobel Prize winner of 1980, Adolfo Perez Esquivel has officially requested that that the Children's Pastoral be considered as a candidate for the next Nobel Prize. The Pastoral is linked to the Brazilian Catholic Bishops' Conference (CNBB) and has been responsible for a drastic reduction in child mortality in the 2476 Brazilian municipalities where it is organized.

Almost 2 million families are attended by the Pastoral especially in the poorest regions of the country. 126.7 thousand pregnant women and 2.6 million children under 6 years are attended. Data for the first three months of this year shows the dramatic fall in child mortality in regions where the Pastoral is present - from 50 to 28.2 deaths per thousand births.

- Elections in Brazil.

Today (Thursday October 03) was election day in Brazilian municipalities for mayors and town-councilors. The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has prepared a Web page where up to the minute results are available. Since many who receive NEWS FROM BRAZIL are interested in detailed results from various states we would like to inform you of the address of the page. It is:

http://www.brasil.emb.nw.dc.us/eleicoes96

Voting was very tranquil in all of Brazil. In cities of 200 thousand an electronic voting machine was used for the first time. It seems to have caused few problems for the ordinary voter. Because of this machine election results will be known much faster than normal at least in the large cities - in most cases by midnight on October 03. Sao Paulo had very heavy rain during most of the day which caused flooding in many parts of the city. The Bandeirantes TV. station was taken off the air for 24 hours in the State of Sao Paulo since late afternoon because of a court decision - the channel was accused of broadcasting material likely to influence voters. Surveys carried out in polling booths indicate that voting was very similar to that indicated by such surveys in recent weeks.

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