NEWS FROM BRAZIL
supplied by Brazil Justice Net
Number 533, June 23, 2005
In this edition of News from Brazil
:
- Communion with the Earth: Rebirth for a Better Life
- A Victory for the Quilombos
- Update on Dorothy Stang case
Communion with the Earth: Rebirth for a Better Life
by Eduardo Souza
Three years ago, 65 families left the city to live out a new experience:
cultivating and living off the land. Thus began the Dom Tomas Balduino
Settlement in a rural area located just outside the city of Sao Paulo.
“I moved to a shelter [in a neighborhood of Sao Paulo] and was unemployed with
small children, and had just separated from my husband who only drank and never
worked,” said Josiane Felix, 30, with four children. “At the shelter, a friend
told me they were rounding up people who were interested in living off the land.
I went and listened to the stories of people involved in the land struggle. I
decided to do it, since I really didn’t have anything, and it did not cost
anything to try.”
Josiane’s story is the story of thousands of other Brazilians who have had to
leave their lands, go to the city, and then find that they cannot get jobs and
have no access to basic services. One solution that seems to be working are
settlements that are built on the outskirts of big urban centers, and that
recruit families living in subhuman conditions. To live with dignity off the
land, having your own house and a little piece of ground: this is the invitation
the MST (Movement of workers Without Land) extends to those in the city who are
excluded from everything.
“I participated in the formation, and then went to the encampment near
Anhanguera highway, near the toll booth. Later, we came and occupied this land.
Months later, the police showed up with their guns and sticks, and pulled us off
the land. But we said, this land is ours, and we are not going to give up,” said
Felix.
As the poet says, “We are made to shine.” But only those shine who don’t give
up, persevere, who dream. Those who conquer fear, the guns and sticks of the
police, the lies of the rich, the inertia and bad faith of those in the
government.
“Today we are here. Already we have planted and harvested. Our children are
healthy. We do not have the worries we had when we were in the city. Here we
live the life that God has always wanted for us,” says Felix as her companions
ready a “solidarity” lunch the settlement is sponsoring.
Antonio Ferreira Neto, another member of the settlement, showed his piece of
land. He has planted mandioc, sweet potato, and other produce the Earth provides
for those who take care of her. “Here is my little corner, and over there is my
house. Make yourselves at home. You who are guests are my friends. I’m going to
pull up some mandioc and sweet potatoes for you to take home,” he says happily.
If the government were to keep its promises of land reform and grant conditions
favorable to a rural life, then thousands of Josianes and Antonios could also
dream of and smile at a life lived off the land, sustaining their families and
sharing with friends.
Source: Jornal Cantareira, June 2005
A Victory for the Quilombos
A ray of hope for quilombos broke through the clouds this month on a much
sought-after pristine beach and rainforest in the state of Sao Paulo. The area
in dispute is called Cacandoca, a term believed to mean “the forest of the
Guinea Bissau.” It is the property of a quilombo, a term which refers to a
community of descendants of runaway slaves dating back to the 1800's. The
community claims that in 1881 Jose Antunes de Sa, who is said to have had an
affair with a slave midwife named Tomazia, granted title of the land to the
community on his deathbed . However, a real estate company, Urbanizadora
Continental, claimed that they had bought 210 hectares of the land in 1974. This
same company owns luxury beach condominiums adjacent to the land. Earlier, a
local judge had ruled in favor of Urbanizadora Continental, but various entities
and organs of the state entered a request to nullify the decision. The Justice
Tribunal of Sao Paulo did exactly that. At the same time INCRA, the state’s land
authority, officially recognized the area as quilombo territory. “I hope that
the resolution of this dispute be an opening for other quilombos in Brazil, and
that quilombo territory never be treated as common land,” said quilombo leader
Antonio dos Santos.
Of the 2,228 quilombos in Brazil, only 70 have official title to their lands.
Update on Dorothy Stang case
Social movements and human rights groups suffered yet another defeat this month
at the hands of the local and federal government authorities regarding the
murder case of Sr. Dorothy Stang. Two hired gunmen shot and killed Stang on
February 12, 2005. Stang, a religious sister, had been working with the poor and
environmental concerns, often conflicting with large landowners and loggers in
the area. Several times she went to local authorities to denounce death threats
against her and the leaders of the communities with whom she worked.
The justice system in the state in which she was murdered, Para, is notoriously
slow and corrupt when it comes to bringing the rich and powerful to justice.
This is the same state in which only two out of over hundred police officers
were convicted for the 1996 Massacre of Eldorado dos Carajas in which 19 rural
workers were killed and many others wounded. The trial of the two officers was
only completed last year. Less notorious trials of the rich and powerful get
held up for years and rarely end up in convictions. Because of this, human
rights lawyers pushed for the case to be moved to a federal arena.
On June 8, the request was denied. The federal judges said that in this case,
the state authorities acted in an efficient and timely manner, arresting the
suspects in record time. The human rights lawyers state that this was only
because of the international attention that the case received and the fact that
their was a motion for the case to be heard before federal judges. Now, various
entities are going to analyze other cases which have been held up for years, and
bring them to authorities to make them federal cases.
Meanwhile, repression continues against landless workers in Para. At the
beginning of this month, the governor of the state, Simao Jatene, order the
expulsion of 20,000 landless workers off land located in the southern part of
the state. A police force of 280 burned houses, destroyed crops, beat several
workers, and made death threats. They did not even give the families time to
gather their belongings nor food that they had just harvested.
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