Number 350, May 14, 1999.
Visit our home page: http://www.oneworld.org/sejup/
In this week's issue:
>From FOLHA DE SAO PAULO:
- Education cooperative offers alternative to poor neighborhoods
- Update on the trial of the Eldorado do Carajas massacre
- Chinese protest in Sao Paulo against the U.S.
- Contaminated blood used for transfusions
- Two day rebellion at Febem
From VEJA MAGAZINE:
Shatter Lives--Modern-day Slavery in Brazil
**NEWS BRIEFS**
>From FOLHA DE SAO PAULO:
Education cooperative offers alternative to poor neighborhoods
University students in Bahia recently opened a education cooperative in
order to help students from poor neighborhoods have a better chance at
entering into the state university system. The cooperative, called
"Cooperativa Conexao 21, formed a partnership with two neighborhood
association in Caminho de Areia and Periperi, two of the poorest areas of
the city of Salvador. Before entering into the university system, every
student must take what is known as the "vestibular," a test which covers a
broad range of subjects. Those who can afford to do so take a course that
helps them to prepare for the "vestibular." These courses run between
US$100 and US$250 a month. Cooperativa Conexao is charging only US$25 a
month. The cooperative has reduced costs by making an agreement with the
neighborhood associations to provide them space, chairs and desks. Those
who are teaching the courses are university students, or recent graduates,
and will be receiving US$10 per class, which is actually more than the city
of Salvador is now paying. The goal of the course is "the democratize
access to the university," said 26 year-old director Marivaldo Salles.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
May 10, 1999
Update on the trial of the Eldorado do Carajas massacre
Once more, the trial of 153 military policemen for the deaths of 19 members
of the MST (Movement of those Without Land) has been postponed. The trial
was expected to begin in June, but due to a petition filed by one of the
defendants, it cannot move forward until the petition has a ruling. It is
now not expected to begin until sometime in July.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
May 12, 1999
Chinese protest in Sao Paulo against the U.S.
Nearly 300 Chinese and Brazilians of Chinese descent protested in front of
the General Consulate of the United States against the bombing of the
Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The protestors burned a US flag after they
were not allowed to deliver a card personally to Ambassador David Kurakane.
They demanded the end of the bombings in Yugoslavia, an official request
for pardon of the bombing of the Embassy, and punishment for those
responsible for the bombing.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
May 13, 1999
Contaminated blood used for transfusions
The Minister of Health announced that two people may have contracted the
HIV virus and six persons may have contracted Hepatitis B through
transfusions with contaminated blood. In the worst case scenario, the
minister said that perhaps up to 16 people contracted HIV and 50 contracted
hepatitis. The contamination may have occurred in Rio de Janeiro,
Pernambuco, Bahia and Alagoas. Donated blood from these states was mixed
for the production of albumin, and therefore impossible to know immediately
the origin of the contamination. The company who was responsible for the
production of the albumin discovered the contamination in 1997, and again
in 1998, but did not report the find to the Ministry of Health.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
May 14, 1999
Two day rebellion at Febem
Last week, a major revolt broke out in one of Sao Paulo's Febems (state
institute for minors), located in the neighborhood of Tatuape. The
rebellion lasted for two days.
.One of our members of SEJUP who lives three blocks from a Febem tells how
the area was like a war zone with the presence of helicopters, shock
troops, mounted police as well as reporters and mothers wanting to know
where and how their sons were.
The mothers of the youth who are in Febem say that the workers provoked the
rebellion because they wanted an increase in their salary. Apparently one
of the workers who was serving food to the youths, threw a plate of food at
one of the minors, thus provoking an outbreak in violence.
According to parents, the Febem has 1,500 youth in a center that has
facilities for 600. The center has 14 units, with numbers 12, 13 and 14
considered high risk. It was in these units that the rebellion began. More
than 100 youth escaped including 30 who jumped out of a bus that was
transferring them from one Febem center to another.
According to Marcelo Curry, an official for the Febem, it was the worst
rebellion since 1992 when over 400 minors escaped from the center. Eduardo
Roberto Domingus da Silva, director of Febem, said one of the youths was
injured and others incurred some scratches. Mothers of the youths say they
were beaten. Silva had a meeting with 150 mothers and promised to release
the names of those in the building and their conditions.
The overcrowding of state institutes for minors are common.
FROM VEJA MAGAZINE:
Shatter Lives--Modern-day Slavery in Brazil
Antônio Pereira da Silva, 27 years, tried to escape, he passed 2 nights in
the forest eating only palm-heart, and was recaptured. Back in the
fazenda, with his wrists tied, he was beaten for 30 minutes and left
bleeding from a punch on the jaw. Some days later, in despair, Antônio
Pereira da Silva fled again, and again was captured. This time they made
him pass three days on bread and water in the cell of the local police
station, in Santana of Araguaia, in the south of Pará. As in other cases,
the police were not his salvation. They captured him and returned him to
the fazenda. Antônio Pereira da Silva worked as a slave for two months in
the fazenda Star of Maceió, in Santana of Araguaia, until he was rescued in
February of last year. He sums up his experience in one phrase "you don't
do that even to an animal".
Though Brazil has reached notable progress in some areas, it is amazing
that there are still Brazilians being treated in this way From 1971, when
the Bishop of São Félix of Araguaia, Dom Pedro Casaldáliga, made the first
accusation of slavery in Brasil, we know that the country lives with this
fact, even though it is difficult for those who live in the cities, who
have cellular phones and an address on the Internet, to believe. From 1995
until now, the rescue group of the Labor Ministry has freed 777 Brazilians
from slavery, and they estimate that for every slave freed there are
various others in the same situation. The 777 worked as slaves on fazendas
in Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Maranhão and in Pará. They were men,
women and children, blacks, whites and mixed races. The majority, deceived
by false promises of work, left their homes in the States of Tocantins,
Maranhão, Pará and Bahia.
Ednaldo Silva Santos, 32 years, is another of those freed. At 3 o'clock in
the morning, he vaulted the fence of a fazenda in Tomé-Açu, in Pará, walked
2 hours in the forest and then took a lift on the back of a lorry without
being seen by the driver. He arrived home, saw his wife and two daughters,
whom he hadn't heard from in 11 months. The following day he got a
message: either come back to the fazenda or you will lose your children.
He returned. He worked in the fields for 15 hours a day, without pay, and
he escaped again. This time he did not receive a warning. His brother was
assassinated with a bullet in the head and on the day of the burial he was
told: "The next time it will be your wife and daughters". Ednaldo Silva
Santos returned to the fazenda. He was a slave for another 6 months, until
he was rescued three weeks ago together with 11 other men, two women and
two children. Ednaldo said 'If someone refused to work, the boss gave the
order to kill him and they buried him there in the fazenda'.
In the rescue operation, there was an exchange of gunfire between the
police and the security. The owner of the fazenda, Glênio Dias Estefanes,
was killed. 35 policemen prepared for one week. When they surrounded the
fazenda, Estefanes tried to escape in a Ford Fiesta, but the car crashed
and he was shot by the police. On the fazenda, the women cooked and the
men worked in the fields, took care of the cattle and cut wood. All of the
17 slaves, men, women and children lived in a barn behind the farm house.
The more fortunate slept in hammocks. The others on the floor.
To this day slavery has been profitable for these new slave owners. There
has not been one farmer or 'cat', as the man who organizes workers is
called, who has gone to prison.
Source: VEJA, 24 of March 1999
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