NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 514, August 3, 2004


In this week’s News from Brazil:

-In May of this year, the Catholic Church’s Land Commission (CPT) met to discuss human rights as related to the sugar cane industry. Below is their summary statement on the issue.

-Last month, the 2nd Continental Meeting of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Americas met to discuss various concerns. Below is a brief summary of the meeting.

Sugar with a Taste of Blood: The CPT’s statement of the expansion of the sugar cane industry in Brazil

Called forth by the cries of excluded women and men of the earth, and by the voice of the Prophet who says “You who buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have: soon there will be no place for anyone else to live, and you alone will live on the land” (Isaiah 5:8), we have gathered on these days of Pentecost in Camaragibe, Pernambuco. We have come from 12 regions of the Land Commission who are most afflicted by the single-cropping of sugar. We have come to reflect and to strategize plans for confronting the problems which have come with the expansion of the sugar industry in our country, an expansion fueled by international policies demanding an increase of use of alcohol as a source of fuel.

We denounce this process as intrinsically flawed as it is based on exploitative practices and the violation of human and environmental rights, which serve as a basis for the financing of the expansion of the farming, industrial and technological sugar-alcohol sector. We denounce agribusiness as an economic generator of social inequalities, of environmental degradation, and slave labor. We denounce the support the current government is giving to this process, such as forgiving or refinancing current debts and the various forms of subsidizing and financing big businesses that are growing as a result of these practices. We condemn other practices such as land grabbing, frauds, embezzlement of public money, and impunity in cases of violence against workers.

We identify the consequences of this model: a growing precariousness of the life conditions and work of salaried, rural employees and the continuation of the migration of workers. Of special concern are those in the Northeast, who provide cheap labor for the wealthy sugar cane factory owners and who leave behind their families, community and cultural roots. In the face of new technologies and new labels which try to hide the perverse face of this colonial system, rural areas continue to see violations of workers rights, illiteracy, hunger and increasing unemployment as a result of mechanization and the maintenance of an archaic, conservative model of the agro-industrial system.

We reaffirm the necessity for rural workers to continue a methodological struggle against this model. We reaffirm the urgency of an effective agrarian reform and the valorization of rural workers as part of the process of constructing another model of agriculture and society in
general. We reaffirm our commitment to struggle against violence aimed
at sugar cane workers, and we renew our commitment to prevent and combat slave labor. We support and invite all to adhere to a campaign in favor of a law which expropriates land where slave labor is happening. We reaffirm the necessity of all national and international organizations to align themselves with the defense of the rights of the poor of the land, especially those being crucified in the sugar fields.

We feel the challenge of articulating effective actions which denounce the pernicious results of the so-called sugar agro-business, just as we do the call to intensify our work together with the poor of the earth so that these may live with dignity in the new heaven, the new earth, the new time in which “the old ways will never again be remembered” (Isaiah 65:17).

Camaragibe, Pernambuco, Brazil, on the feast of Pentecost, May 30, 2004

Closing of the 2nd Continental Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples and Nationalitites of the Americas

On Sunday (the 25th), over 700 indigenous people closed the 2nd Continental Meeting of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala rejecting the policy adopted by the US government of intervening and setting up military bases in various countries and imposing programs such as the Puebla-Panama Plan and the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).

According to the indigenous leaders convened in the meeting, free trade treaties (FTAA) constitute a threat to indigenous peoples. “In my country, American military units are supporting the government and extremist paramilitary right-wing groups, the action of which is displacing indigenous communities from their areas, which are then occupied by these groups,” said an indigenous leader from Colombia.

Besides the American intervention, the indigenous communities are facing conflicts with large oil and mining companies, large landowners, and other economic groups which, supported by their governments, are invading larger and larger areas inside indigenous territories without any respect for the laws which ensure the right of indigenous people to their territories.

During the discussions held in the meeting, the participants brought up the issue of the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous land in the state of Roraima, where conflicts with rice farmers and other political and economic groups became more intense in recent months due to the long time it is taking for president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to sign a decree officially confirming the bounds of that land. The participants approved a decision to send a document to the Brazilian president requesting the immediate legal recognition of all indigenous lands, particularly of the Raposa/Serra do Sol land.

The event was also marked by the participation of Adolfo Pérez Esquivel - Peace Nobel Prize laureate - and of Venezuelan delegations, which led the participants to applaud and support president Hugo Chávez Frias. For the popular leaders attending the Meeting and the Social Forum of the Americas, Hugo Chávez is a symbol of resistance against the interventionist projects that the US government wants to implement in the Americas.

The four days of discussions about ten major topics resulted in a document which will be sent to the governments of the different countries of the American continent with the aim of laying a foundation for the establishment of plural-national states in which indigenous people are recognized and participate without any restrictions in different decision-making bodies and agencies.

In the document, in addition to expressing their outrage with neo-liberal policies and the repression of national governments in the Americas, characterized by the violation of human rights and of their rights as indigenous people, the indigenous leaders decided to create a permanent forum for exchanging information, so that indigenous peoples and nationalities may fight together against neo-liberal globalization policies, define a common agenda for actions and mobilization campaigns, and develop alliances with other sectors of society, particularly with social movements.

Also on Sunday, the 1st Social Forum Social of the Americas began, which will last until the 31st. More news on the Forum can be found on the Cimi website. www.cimi.org.br.

Source: Cimi Indianist Missionary Council July 29, 2004


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