• The Situation of Female Prisoners in Sao Paulo, Brazil 
• US Forces Advance in Neighboring Paraguay 

The Situation of Female Prisoners in Sao Paulo, Brazil

By Heidi Cerneka*

Out of every 100 prisoners in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 5 are women. This percentage has risen drastically over the past years. In April of 1998, there were 2,500 women in the state’s prisons and jails. In October of 2003, there were 4,000 occupying the same amount of physical space in the jails. In the last five years, the number of women in jails has increased more than 60%.

The increase in the number of female prisoners is related to a modern phenomenon: on the one hand, a number of women are gaining ground in the area of human rights, such as equality with men; and on the other hand, many of them are unfortunately gaining their space in the world of crime and marginalization.

The charge most common among male prisoners is robbery; however, the majority of women are imprisoned for illegal drugs, more for the use of these than for trafficking. There are many women who are jail because they happened to be at home when the police arrive looking for their partner. There are drugs in the home and so they are arrested. Sometimes the women play the role of "mule"­they carry the drugs to the male trafficker. Women get involved in drugs out of financial despair, or sometimes because of their own addictions. And there are cases where the women are indeed traffickers.

Thievery is another crime which women often commit, many times out of economic need. One woman stole ten bottles of shampoo so that she could buy some cooking gas. People often buy such stolen merchandise because it is cheaper. The question arises: when people buy such merchandise, are they helping a woman in need, or are they contributing to the woman’s eventual imprisonment? Women should not be given heavy sentences for this type of crime. [But they often stay in prison for months or even years waiting for trial and sentencing.]

Female prisoners are slowly gaining rights, such as the right for a woman to nurse her newborn. She is given place in the prison’s nursery, and can stay with the baby for the first 4-6 months, with the right to go every day to the prison’s outdoor patio. This is a right on paper, but it has yet to be applied to all women prisoners with babies. What most frequently happens is that after birth, the baby stays in the hospital for two weeks, and the mother returns to the prison waiting for a place to open up in the nursery.

Groups such as the Center of Human Rights and the Church’s prison ministry are working for other rights, such as the right for women to have conjugal visits, access to health care, and work and study opportunities.

After completing their sentences, the majority of women hope to go home, take care of their children, and work. Research shows that the most important factor in the re-insertion of the woman into society is rebuilding family structures. Therefore, personal therapy and job training are indispensable while she is in prison, because when she gets out, she will be expected to sustain the home emotionally and financially.

Unfortunately, there are few public policies for women prisoners. Unlike their male counterparts, they do not dig tunnels, they rarely have riots, they are less violent, and they do not appear in the newspapers. They are invisible and forgotten by the State. Many in the government, from the executive to the juridical powers, say that they are concerned about "re-education and re-insertion," but only in words. Is seems that what is most important for them is the punishment.

What would be more healthy and educational is if a woman were given alternative sentencing­a penalty which would demand the woman to repair what or who was violated, and thus reintegrating her into the society, instead of separating her from her family.

We cannot continue to accept women going to prisons for having stolen a liter of milk or a little bit of bread to feed her hungry children, while judges, police, lawyers and politicians are involved in money laundering, embezzling public funds; while powerful drug traffickers extort and steal millions of dollars; and while these same people accused of crime rest at home or on their family ranches awaiting sentencing. As long as such continues, there will never be a just and democratic Brazil.

*Heidi Cerneka is National Coordinator of the Church’s Ministry to Women Prisoners.


US Forces Advance in Neighboring Paraguay

The questionable presence of the United States military in Paraguay, which began this month, is making many nervous in South America. On May 26 of this year, the Paraguayan Congress approved of 13 military exercises with US forces until December of 2006. During this period, members of the US military will be granted diplomatic immunity, and thus will be able to use weapons and equipment against any forms of aggression or "civil actions," commonly interpreted as counter-insurgencies.

It was also announced that the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (the FBI) will open an office in the capital city Asuncion in 2006.

Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia have already expressed concerns about a possible implantation of a US military base in Paraguay, and initiative that Paraguay and the US are publicly denying. Whatever the case may be, the decision of the Congress is seen as a victory for the White House which has finally managed to put its troops on the "Triple Frontier" (formed by the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay). Since the attacks on the US on September 11, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has alleged that this region hosts cells of terrorists. They have also maintained that the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Columbia have taken hostages in Paraguay. These accusations in spite of the fact that all three countries have vehemently denied any sort of terrorist activity in the Triple Frontier region.

In fact, the region has already been a focal point of scandal, corruption and contraband, in one case involving the United States. In the "Archives of Terror"­documents from the Paraguayan dictatorship of Alfredo Strossner (1954-1989)­there is evidence that weapons from Irangate were moved through the Triple Frontier in the 1980’s. The CIA conducted a sale of arms from Iran and which were then shipped to supply the Contras of Nicaragua, a mercenary group that the US supported against the Sandinista government.

For Washington, the Triple Frontier plays a strategic role in the ideas of low-intensity wars and pre-emptive strikes, as with all borders: US troops with have access to the Mariscal Estigarribia airport, permitting the rapid mobilization of troops to whatever conflict may be "spinning out of control." Besides this, the Guarani aquifer, the biggest reserve of fresh water in the world, is located in this region.

Source: Brasil de Fato, July 21-27, 2005


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