Number 366, September 17, 1999.
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In this week's issue:
>NEWS BRIEFS
- Money for schools misappropriated
-644 youth escape juvenile detention center
>CHURCH ISSUES
- Shout of the Excluded
- Walking and witnessing
NEWS BRIEFS
- Money for schools misappropriated
Every afternoon from Tuesday to Saturday, Valmira Santos teaches 20 kids on her front porch. Nearly 500 kilometers away from Salvador, Bahia, the house is made of clay, has no electricity nor running water. "Since we don’t have a school, we teach the kids right here. We work with what we got," said Santos. But according to the government, she has no right to complain--officially, she received R$1,640 to reform her house. But in reality, the money never arrived. It seems to have simply disappeared. Unfortunately, this happens all too often with money that is earmarked for education. The money from the educational fund which is deposited directly in accounts of every city three times a month is drained out through an infinite number of little holes in city coffers, holes which are just now being discovered. In Bahia, 63 cities are being invested; in Ceara, 106 cities; and in Rio Grande do Norte, four mayors have been removed and another 21 are being investigated for misappropriation of educational funds. In the municipality where Santos works, an investigation revealed that several people on the city’s payrolls are listed as teachers when in fact they work in areas not at all related to education. In another city in Ceara, the city "officially" spent R$714,000 on continuing education for teachers. However, only 42 teachers signed up for the courses. This means R$17,000 was spent on each teacher, an amount for which one would have difficulty accounting.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
September 12, 1999
-644 youth escape juvenile detention center
The correctional complex, Febem(Foundation of the Well-Being of the Minor) in the southeast of Sao Paulo had it’s most recent rebellion and escapes last weekend. Six hundred forty-four adolescents were able to escape the detention complex between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning. The problems of this past weekend are not limited to the youths escaping. Febem monitors are under suspicion of beating the adolescents -- video images show monitors beating youth that were already brought under control. Also, special forces of the military police wounded at least 6 visiting relatives of the youth with rubber bullets, including one little girl who had to be treated in a nearby emergency room.
The confusion began in three wings of the visiting areas while family members were visiting prisoners. The rebellion allegedly was incited after an employee of the Febem beat two young boys on Saturday morning, who in turn took the employee as a hostage. Fires were then ignited in the dormitories and the man was let go only after negotiations with intermediaries. Notably, one of the conditions for the release of the hostage demanded by the youth was that the special forces police would first remove all monitors from the wings of the complex as the juveniles were fearful of retaliation.
Mothers of the detained, who were inside the complex when the rebellion started, reported that they had seen youth beaten by the monitors. "Many of the monitors who were assaulting the youth had hoods tied over their heads," said Silmara Santos. According to her, some monitors even lashed out against parents who were revolted by their aggression. Aparecida de Souza Ferreira also said she saw the detained youth being beaten. "My son had wounds everywhere." Rita Dione, 28 told how her brother received two hits on his left arm. "When he raised his arm to protect his head from a cudgel, the monitor hit him two times in the same place."
Information about the number of escapees was not related by the Febem, but rather by Eduardo Suplicy of the Worker’s Party and Father Julio Lancellotti from the Pastoral of the Minor. Also, the Febem refused to give out information to parents and relatives as to which youth had escaped and which were still within the complex. Febem, as a juvenile detention center should have a limit of 360 detainees, while in actuality it is sheltering 1,400. The detention center has already been court-ordered that the building undergo renovations and the excess of inmates be transferred to another facility.
The General Investigations on Justice of Sao Paulo announced on Monday that it would designate a district attorney in the area of criminal investigations to procure the practice of torture on the part of monitors against the minors during this last weekend’s rebellion. The first provision of the investigation will be to analyze the video tapes that caught a monitor, with his face covered by a cloth, attacking adolescents who had already been brought under control. On the tapes, other monitors watch as the youth are beaten. One youth affirmed that during his two and a half months of detention, he had been assaulted three times with wooden objects -- this type of beating is well-known method of aggression amongst the inmates. 30 youths were treated for wounds caused by beatings, dislocated arms, and cuts from rubber bullets. According to hospital directors, the youth were principally treated for wounds on their heads, legs, backs and arms. Besides these, 5 employees were treated for smoke inhalation caused by the fires started by the rebellion -- they were attended to and released shortly.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
September 13-15, 1999
CHURCH ISSUES
- Shout of the Excluded
It is quite obvious what a crisis the government is in. Blatant corruption and impunity is at a high. Consequently, violence towards citizens is growing steadily every day. Terrifying is the growth of unemployment in the city and the countryside, the dreadful social inequality, the total lack of respect for human dignity as well as for education, health, leisure, work and a just wage. The lack of policies by the politicians regarding distribution of income and wealth is forcing the population into greater exclusion and increasing social tension.
In the month of June, the state of Parana suffered one of the most violent repressions registered in years. The Brazilian population through television watched a planned action of persecution, torture and death against the rural farm workers. The crime was perpetrated by the local rural oligarchies of the state, and with the approval of the state and federal government and the complicity of the judicial powers.
Theses deplorable facts are happening as we organize the 5th Shout of the Excluded. This great national gathering of peoples will protest and denounce an economic model imposed by the elite who bend to international capital interests.
The social debt during the term of this present government has grown proportionally to the external debt. If the resources now being utilized for the payment of debt were applied to social programs, poor countries could guarantee better conditions for the lives of the excluded. "Pardon," as defined by the rich countries, is not acceptable to us. We want to exercise our right to decide our destiny and our right to sovereignty.
In spite of all this, there are signs of hope! The popular movements, social church organizations, unions, people - independent of belief, flag or Sex - have dedicated themselves in the construction of a different country. We want a just society, democracy and dignity.
During the second part of this year as we approach the next millennium, the popular movements have gained a new surge of vitality. As proof of this, we need just take a look at our calendar: August 26th, the "March of 100,000" in Brasilia; September 7th, the 5th National "Shout of the Excluded" throughout all of Brazil; and on October 12th, the Latin American "Shout of the Excluded" throughout all Latin-American.
Source: Grito dos Excluidos - special edition August, '99
- Walking and witnessing
From August 31st until September 7th, Michelle Myers, a Maryknoll lay missioner, had the opportunity to walk with others from her neighborhood, Brasilandia (northwest periphery of Sao Paulo) to the 12th annual Grito dos Excluidos (Shout of the Excluded) happening at the national cathedral in Aparecida, 170 km north of Sao Paulo. This national protest is sponsored each year by the National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil. The walk itself was organized by the episcopal region of Brasilandia. Below are excerpts from her reflections on the walk.
Day 1
I must admit that I was somewhat nervous going on a seven day walk for over 170 kilometers, only knowing a few acquaintances and knowing that I would be speaking Portuguese the entire time. After throwing my fold-up mattress and 2 small backpacks into the truck that would be accompanying us, I found Nelma, my walking partner. Since both of us had wanted to go on the walk, but wanted to at least have one known person to go with, a mutual friend had introduced us before the walk. Nelma had really wanted to make the walk the last year, but was working and not able to go. Since she had just lost her job 2 weeks before, she was free to go and was definitely walking not so much to denounce injustice, but to plead, along with millions of other Brazilians, for help from Nossa Senhora de Aparecida (Our Lady of Aparecida). Aparecida’s image is a Black woman with a heavy blue cloak and golden crown and she is central to popular and traditional religiosity -- as popular as Our Lady of Guadalupe is to the people of Mexico. Nelma, who is 25 years old, is now one of the 1,800,000 unemployed people in the city of Sao Paulo alone, and she has a deep faith in Mary of Aparecida even through all the hardships of her life.
My reasons for walking were very different from my companion’s. I wanted to get to know the people of Brasilandia better and especially the community organizers, church leaders, and activists who I knew would also be on the walk. I also wanted to go to show my support to the community and to affirm my solidarity with them. However, Nelma’s testimony to her life was extremely humbling and led me to think about my faith life and my own trust in God and to evaluate the ways in which I thank God for the love, joy, family, and friends in my own life. Walking out of the city, it occurred to me how objective and concrete my goals were for going on this journey and that life is not always about production, the achievement of goals, or the making of a thing or a quantity of money. This pilgrimage and protest was a very simple act of faith and resistance in a country where the poor are ignored in order to fulfill the standards of foreign financiers and the International Monetary Fund’s restructuring requirements for loans. The Grito was very clearly a protest to say ENOUGH to the concentration of wealth. As the spokesperson for Brazil’s Catholic Bishops put it, "Either the government changes its political economic system, or we will change the government." People are tired of the unemployment, misery, and huge disparities between the minimum salary (US $70 a month) and the opulence of the small percentage of rich people. This 7 day walk -- that can be completed in 3 hours by car -- was a prayerful, simple, communal, painful, and joyful time.
As I was coughing up pollution and feeling my muscles strain even though I had stretched and was wearing my Hi-Tech tennis shoes, I looked up from the asphalt and noticed, Penha, a 60 year old Afro-Brazilian woman walking in front of me. She was wearing thongs, as most people were and her pace was steady. Here is the God of the poor/Walking in her simple dress,/scarf around her hair and thongs/on her feet./She is endurance, accompaniment/and she can’t save you, but she/keeps up and inspires you/ with her strength.......
Day 4
I had slept in a church the night before in a small town in the interior and we had the entire morning free since the organizers did not want to push us too much after our 44 kilometer walk of the day before. Therefore, some of us, including myself visited a landless community near the church that morning. In order to pressure the government to implement it’s land reform laws, these poor families and small farmers occupy a piece of land that is not in use and the Landless Movement usually accompanied by the Church files the legal proceedings. It is in no way a simple or easy process. This community was suffering from attacks by police hired out by the huge landowners. While we were there, Father Alfonso made it clear that if the police come again, the families should take refuge in the church. He joked that the walkers had invaded it the night before, so it was nicely broken in if the families should need the church for protection. Everyone laughed, and I realized how seriously this community believed in hospitality and welcoming the stranger and the outcasts. Later Father Alfonso related to us that once when the police came to attack, the community was ready and stood in peaceful protest singing:
Sou, sou teu, Senhor I am yours, Lord
Sou povo novo, retirante, lutador. I am just arriving, the migrant, a fighter
Deus, dos peregrinos, dos pequeninos God of the travelers, of the little ones
Jesus Cristo redentor. Jesus Christ, redeemer
As we left the next morning, we serenaded the community with the song that they had taught us......
Day 7
"Independence" Day. We made it!!!! As we came down around a curve of the highway the reddish-gold enormous structure of the cathedral came into sight. It was a relief and a joy to know we had accomplished our goal. We attended mass with about 50,000 other people and after the mass was the Grito -- the Cry of the Excluded. The Bishops along with the Central Worker’s Union, the Union of Popular Movements, the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers, and the National Confederation of Teachers denounced the privatization of Brazil’s water, light, and phone systems and heightened interests on debt -- all requirements of the International Monetary Fund. People already starving and suffering from unemployment do not want the stream-lining of jobs by foreign multinationals nor more taxes from loans of which they will never see the benefits. Many heavily indebted poor countries, including Brazil have already paid of the quantity of their debt many times over in interest rates and will never be able to pay off the entire amount. Also, as in Brazil’s case, much of the debt was acquired by dictatorships that did not allow public opinion in national financing or other issues.
We arrived on Brazil’s Independence Day to declare that there can be no true independence with the amount of suffering and poverty that prevails in this nation. At the end of the Grito, the organizers had picked a person from different sectors of society and asked them, "What does it mean to share the bread?" What does the Eucharist really mean for each of us and how do we live out our promise to be in communion with our neighbors? The end of impunity! Equality between Blacks, Latinos, and Indigenous peoples! Full participation of women! Better distribution of land! A Brazil full of happiness, creativity, and true freedom.
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