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In this week's News from Brazil:

• CNBB and José Alencar will ask Lula to resume dialogue on the Transposition of the São Francisco River
• Brazil - Cocaine with Fruits

CNBB and José Alencar will ask Lula to resume dialogue on the Transposition of the São Francisco River.

The vice president of the Republic, José Alencar (PMR/Minas Gerais), and the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) took on the commitment to ask President Lula to resume the dialogue on the São Francisco river transposition project. On August 22, they received members of the Caravan Against the Transposition of the São Francisco River, who were in Brasília, for a meeting.

From August 20 to September 1, a group of specialists in the São Francisco river and in the semi-arid region (scientists, jurists, community leaders...) will be traveling to 11 Brazilian capital cities to sensitize leaders and populations on the threats posed by the São Francisco river transposition project.

The Caravan in defense of the São Francisco River and of the Semi-Arid Region intends to challenge the consensus created by a marketing campaign of the Federal Government around the project. “The government says that those who are against the transposition project are denying water to northeastern brothers and sisters, which is not true,” explains Rubem Siqueira, from the Land Pastoral Commission.

According to the Caravan's members, the transposition is not an appropriate solution from the economic, technical, social, and environmental points of view. It would be impossible to distribute the pumped water to a scattered population – the one which suffers the effects of droughts most. Because it consumes a lot of energy, the water made available by the transposition of the São Francisco river will imply a very high cost for consumers or it will have to be subsidized forever by the Federal Government.

The group also warns that fundamental issues, such as a strategy for the sustainable development of the Brazilian semiarid region and the recovery of watersheds, are treated by the Federal Government as compensatory or co-opting measures.

“I don’t think the government is still discussing the transposition. Its position is that it is simply a project that should be implemented,” evaluated Rubem after meeting the vice president.

“He was touched with the diversity and seriousness of people. We did not expect to change his position, but he pledged to speak with the president to resume the discussions from the technical and social point of view,” he added.

At the CNBB, the Caravan was received by the archbishops Geraldo Lyrio Rocks and Luiz Soares Vieira and by the bishop Dimas Lara Barbosa, who are the president, vice president and secretary general of the entity, respectively. At the end of the hearing, Dom Geraldo said that more dialogue is needed on the project. “A project of such magnitude, with so many implications, should not be implemented before all affected people are truly heard,” he said.

The CNBB will submit a document to president Lula asking for more dialogue on the transposition of the São Francisco river. During the meeting with the Caravan, Dom Geraldo highlighted that the State should ensure the access of the population to quality water. The entity also recalled that both the life and lands of people living in the region should be respected.

Several indigenous peoples would be affected by the transposition, including the Truká and Tumbalalá peoples, who reoccupied part of their territories located in an area threatened by the project in the state of Bahia in July. About 400 Truká and 200 Tumbalalá remain in the reoccupied areas. They are pressing the Federal Government to complete the procedures for identifying and demarcating their lands.

According to the law, indigenous peoples must be consulted when a project planned to be carried out affects them. In the case of the transposition, this did not happen

Source: 
Indianist Missionary Council, Brasília, August 23, 2007, www.cimi.org.br

Brazil - Cocaine with Fruits
by Roberto Malvezzi

The bomb has exploded here in the sertao [the semi-arid region of the Northeast of Brazil].  A Columbian who owns MARIAD, a fruit company, was caught  cocaine along mangos and grapes.  He has close connections to Abadia, the Columbian drug lord who was just arrested in São Paulo this month.

In the latest national surveys concerning violence, the municipality with the greatest number of deaths per capita through firearms is Cabrobo, in the Pernambuco sertao--exactly the place where plans are being made for the redirecting of the Sao Francisco River to the north, and where Dom Luis staged his hunger strike against these plans last year.  Here in the Sao Francisco River region, with the arrival of marijuana in the 80's, violence has taken over the region.  The shootings happen regularly, like last week in Juazeiro where two police officers were eliminated by a gang who received their orders from the PCC gang located in Sao Paulo.

The sertao wants peace.  This week, I participated in two events wanting to promote a culture of peace.  One was organized by the National Council of Churches in Brasilia, the other one by the diocese of Floresta in the sertao of Pernambuco.

In Floresta, the event was the fruit of a powerful force for peace.  This in a diocese which has all the ingredients to be one of the most violent places in Brazil--poverty, marijuana production, the redirecting of the Sao Francisco River, and plans for installing a nuclear power plant.  Here it is clear that without options, youth and even some adults fall into drug trafficking. 

There were 900 teachers at the event from the different municipalities of the region.  They themselves are often stigmatized for being born in a region that is considered the den of traffickers.  It is the same experience of those who live in the favelas [shantytowns] of Rio and who are automatically considered bandits just because they come from and live in the favelas.  There is a tenacity of the people in their desire to construct peace, a sign that they are not with arms crossed, even though they may be tired.  It is not the fatigue of the middle class, but it is the structural violence which does not permit us big dreams.  Those of the middle and upper classes want a police state, and not a society of peace built on a base of social justice.

The Church's Land Commission has for years traced conflicts over land in Brazil.  Our observation is that those who attack and violate persons are the same that attack and violent the environment.  Chico Mendes and Dorothy Stang are two martyrs who have witnessed this reality.  After all, why would someone who does not respect the life of a seventy-four year old respect the trees of the forest?  The human greed that traffics, that results in war, that exploits people is the same that creates degradation of the planet.  Now, our violence against the planet will have to deal with the powerful revenge of Mother Earth.

Peace is the fruit of justice, said the Biblical prophets.  The great pacifists, beginning with the prophets, through Jesus of Nazareth, through Gandhi and Martin Luther King were all assassinated.  Thus, it is not easy to build peace, above all in a society which has reached the degree of degradation that Brazil has.  It is not by accident that Brazil is one of the most unjust places on the face of the Earth, and that it is also one of the most violent.  We want peace, but it seems that we are far from it.  But in the meanwhile, we cannot give up.  In certain moments, like in Brasilia and in Floresta, it is even possible to dream.

Source:  Adital, August 22, 2007,  www.adital.com.br

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