Number 434, January 19, 2001.
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SEJUP
In this week's issue:
>NEWS BRIEFS
- Study reveals racial barriers in university system
- Rancher confesses to murder of landless worker but is released
- Genoino critiques the United States’ future Secretary of State
- Farmers demand compensation for chemical poisoning
>INDIGENOUS ISSUES
- Military Police kidnaps and kills Truka Indians
NEWS BRIEFS
- Study reveals racial barriers in university system
A recent report released by the Ministry of Education reveals the inequalities in the Brazilian university system. Currently, of the graduates of the 18 degree programs in the system only 2.2% are Afro-Brazilians, who are officially 5.7% of the population. If the proportion of Afro-Brazilians in the general population and those with university degrees were the same, the number of Afro-Brazilians with degrees would have to increase 160%. In some degree programs, the inequality is more evident. For example, only .7% of the graduates with dentistry degrees are Afro-Brazilian; with medicine, 1%, and with veterinary, 1.1%. The inequalities also include those who consider themselves "pardo" (brown) or "mulatto" (mixed). This group represents 39.5% of the general population but represent only 13.5% of university graduates. Those considering themselves "white" make up 54% of the population, and are 80% of university graduates. "It’s not the university that causes this inequality," said Secretary of Superior Education Antoinio Macdowell de Figueiredo. "It is the primary and secondary educational systems that feed the inequalities in the university system."
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
January 14, 2001
- Rancher confesses to murder of landless worker but is released
The Federation of Agricultural Workers of Minas Gerais is questioning a decision rendered by the city of Dom Bosco Justice Department after releasing a rancher who confessed to the murder of a rural worker. The rancher, Deoclesio Carneiro, confessed that he paid US$750 for gunman Marcos Goes Goncalves Pereira to kill rural landless leader Sabino Perieira Lopes in October of last year. Lopes, husband and father of seven, had been leading a group of 60 families in an occupation of Carneiro’s ranch, which is currently being appropriated by the federal government. In his confession, Carneiro said he hired Pereira instead of doing the deed himself because he is old, drinks too much and is a bad shot. He was imprisoned for five days, but then released. The situation continues to be tense for those occupying the ranch as other leaders have received death threats.
Source: Linha Aberta
January 15, 2001
- Genoino critiques the United States’ future Secretary of State
Jose Genoino, the national vice-president of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, issued today a critique of General Colin Powell, the future Secretary of State of the United States. Powell has asserted that one purpose of the Columbian Plan and U.S. military intervention in South America is to combat Columbian guerrillas. Up until this point, President Clinton has affirmed that the purpose is to combat drug trafficking. Powell also declared that he wants neighboring countries involved in the operation. "Brazil cannot accept this under any circumstances as it is a great risk to enter into a conflict monitored by the United States. [The United States] wants to ‘Vietnamize Columbia and involve neighboring countries," said Genoino.
Source: Linha Aberta
January 18, 2001
- Farmers demand compensation for chemical poisoning
Leaders of the Federation of Agricultural Workers of Rio Grande do Sul are meeting in Porto Alegre to discuss the future of small farmers who lost their soy crops when they used a product called Rodiuran to kill weeds. Evidently, the product was defective and destroyed an estimated 6,000 hectares of soy. The company responsible for the product, Avents, is alleging that there was a sabotage. The Federation is demanding that the company compensate the farmers for their losses.
Source: Linha Aberta
January 18, 2001
INDIGENOUS ISSUES
- Military Police kidnaps and kills Truka Indians
On 4 January, military police from the state of Pernambuco kidnaped the Truká Indians Nilson Félix, 16, and his father José de Nô Félix, 38, in the municipality of Cabrobó (PE). From the moment the kidnaping, the community mobilized to make searches, and three days later (on Sunday 7 January) came upon the burned and mutilated bodies of Nilson and José de Nô in an area of the municipality of Santa Maria da Boa Vista, located 150 kilometers from the place the kidnapping took place.
The kidnaping and murder occurred following an operation by the Pernambuco Military Police in Cabroró during which the adolescent Nilson and his uncle Geraldo Gomes da Silva were shot. In the same operation Ismael Borges Melo and Luismar Leite Rocha, members of the Military Police force, died. Nilson's uncle died later as a result of the wounds he suffered.
Nilson Félix was taken by his father to the local hospital, but his condition was so serious that he had to be removed to a hospital in Petrolina (PE), where he would receive the proper treatment. The transfer was made in a vehicle that belonged to alderman Romero Gomes, which transported Nilson, his father and a nurse, besides the driver. On the way the vehicle was intercepted by a Military Police vehicle. Several policemen wearing hoods kidnaped the young man and his father and ordered the others to return to Cabrobó.
Informed of the Military Police action by the nurse, the Truká community reported the incident to the Federal Police and mobilized to make searches. It was the Indians themselves who located the bodies three days later, following information given by local residents.
The corpses of the adolescent and his father were released yesterday by the Forensic Medicine Institute of Recife, and the Indian community programmed for today, 11 January, the burial ceremony for the two Indians on Assunçăo Island in the Truká territory.
This action by the MP of the state of Pernambuco against the Indians is not an isolated fact, since many denunciations have been made by the Trukás against the police authorities in the region without the community leaders reporting any punishment of those who violate their constitutional rights. This flagrant disrespect for human rights is aggravated by the state authorities failing to recognize the differentiated ethnic identity of the Indians, and consequently the need for specific treatment.
Also on the 4th January, members of the Military Police (some of whom wore hoods) invaded the Truká territory in 12 vehicles, including regular automobiles, without the proper legal authorization (the area is under the responsibility of the Federal Police). They placed the Indian known as "Lobinho" in the trunk of one of the cars for him to show them Nilson Félix's house, where they looked for his other brother, 14-year-old Nelson Félix.
On the 8th January two representatives of the Truká community traveled by bus from Cabrobó to Recife to see to certain procedures relating to the case when they were approached by five military policemen in the city of Belém do Săo Francisco, without any justification being given. They asked where the Indians lived and accused them of being bus robbers. The police allowed them to continue their journey, but forbade them to make any comment on the incident. If they did, "someone would blow their heads off". The five policemen followed the bus in a small vehicle for about 40 kilometers.
The Cimi Regional office in the Northeast sent a petition to the Federal Department of Justice requesting that an inquiry be opened by the Federal Police; an Administrative-Disciplinary Procedure be conducted by the General Police Internal Affairs; the policemen involved in the occurrence be removed from the municipality of Cabrobó and vicinity; the State of Pernambuco be held responsible for the occurrence; and other provisions.
Source: Cimi
January 11, 2001
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