Number 70, March 18, 1993.

HUMAN RIGHTS

- President Itamar continues to receive messages of protest on the Carandiru massacre.

President Itamar Franco continues to receive hundreds of protest messages, demanding that he set up an independent inquiry into last year's massacre of 111 prisoners in the Carandiru prison, in Sao Paulo. On the initiative of Amnesty International, postcards, with a picture of cell bars on one side, are arriving everyday, to remind the President that the world hasn't forgotten the slaughter and that world opinion demands that justice be done.

- Legal experts revising penal code, reject death penalty.

The 12 jurists who make up the special commission chosen by the Minister for Justice, Mauricio Correa, to make a revision of the new penal code, have unanimously rejected the introduction of the death penalty.

According to the Lawyers Association of Brazil (OAB), the law experts consider the death penalty to be totally ineffective in resolving Brazil's problem of violence. In the opinion of the commission's president, Evandro Lins e Silva, crime and social deprivation are twins. "To reduce crime", he says, "it's imperative that the government adopt a policy, that goes to the root of the problem - the social reasons that force people into crime, such as poverty, unemployment, inflation and economic recession".

Created officially in December of 1992, the commission held it's first meeting in January of this year. In June, the commission will send it's first draft of the new code to the Congress for discussion. Among the suggestions under debate are the ideas of making the carrying of unauthorized fire-arms, a crime where bail is not possible and a wider concept of violence against the family and women.

CHURCH QUESTIONS

- Police prosecute Frei Betto because of article.

The Dominican writer and theologian, Frei Betto, is being prosecuted by the Sao Paulo State Department of Security and the Military Police, because of an article he published, recently, in the "O Estado de Sao Paulo" newspaper, accusing the ROTA (an elite group of the Military Police), of discriminating against and murdering blacks and poor people.

The first hearing is set for July 2nd and frei Betto has arranged for the Cardinal Archbishop of Sao Paulo, d. Paulo Evaristo Arns, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, president of the Workers Party and Vicente Paulo da Silva, president of the Metal Workers Union of Sao Bernardo and Diadema, to act as witnesses for his defense.

- CONIC ask president Itamar to take measures to combat hunger and implant agrarian reform.

The National Council of Christian Churches in Brazil (CONIC), the major Brazilian ecumenical organ, sent a message to President Itamar Franco, asking him to take urgent measures to combat hunger and implant agrarian reform in Brazil.

In their letter, they say that they welcome the recent bill on agrarian reform but "ardently hope that it will be put into action faithfully and correctly". The letter also expresses the Council's concern about the growth in violence, especially in the rural areas, where land conflicts are becoming extremely common and critical. They ask the President to do everything in his power to work for peace in the rural areas, "so as to diminish the level of poverty and put and end to the inequality and suffering of the landless in Brazil".

RURAL QUESTIONS

- Ministry of Justice to investigate violence against landless.

A special commission made up of members from the Council for the Defense of the Rights of the Person, an organ of the Ministry of Justice, the Lawyers Association of Brazil (OAB) and the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) are in Parana to investigate accusations of police violence against landless rural workers, in the region of Campo Bonito.

On March 3rd, a conflict between military police and 150 landless families, who had occupied the Santana Estate, resulted in the deaths of 3 secret agents, from the information department of the Parana Military Police. Police repression intensified with the imprisonment and torture of several rural workers. One of the workers, Diniz Bento da Silva, known as Teixeirinha, who managed to get away during the first conflict, was later tracked down and executed in cold blood by the police, in reprisal for the deaths of their colleagues.

Under torture, seven of those imprisoned had given Diniz's name to the police. A statement from the Movement for Landless Rural Workers (MST) said that Diniz was ready to give himself up to the police but he was brutally murdered. The movement accuses the police of torturing Teixeirinha's wife and his 13-year old son, as well as some of his neighbor's children, by blindfolding and beating them with their guns. The police also pretended to hang them and made death threats. After this went on for a while, Texeirinha gave himself up, unarmed, shirtless and with his arms in the air. "The hooded policemen", said the MST, "handcuffed him and marched him through the campsite, beating and humiliating him publicly.

After this they brought him away into the forest, where he was tortured for a few hours. Then some shots were heard and the cold-blooded execution was over".

The MST add that by murdering the landless worker,"the government of Parana has instituted the death penalty". A public act of protest, to show solidarity with the landless workers struggle for agrarian reform and repudiating the grotesque violence of the police of Parana, was organized on Tuesday last, in the town of Campo Bonito.

This case in Parana is just one more in a long series of violent conflicts related to the lack of a policy of agrarian reform in Brazil. In Bom Retiro estate, in the region of Julio de Castilhas, Rio Grande do Sul, the situation continues to be very tense. The estate was occupied on March 8th, by 520 landless families, who had been living in campsites for the last three years, waiting for a piece of land to live on and cultivate. Landowners from the Democratic Rural Union (UDR), the principal organization of the Brazilian ranchers, are instigating the local population against the occupants of the Bom Retiro estate. Rio Grande do Sul has 1,433 landless families living precariously in campsites, waiting for the government to do something to resolve the land question.

In the interior of Sao Paulo, 800 families have been occupying part of the 1800 hectares of the Ipanema estate in the region of Ipero, near Campinas, since the 16th of May of last year, also waiting for the government to regularize their situation. The estate had been lying idle for the last 20 years and belongs to the Federal government. The landless group have planted and harvested cassava, corn, rice, beans, pumkin, melons and other produce and have the support of Church groups and rural workers unions.

- National meeting for grassroots leaders threatened with death.

A meeting to unite approximately 200 grassroots leaders, all threatened with death, is to be held in October of this year in Sao Paulo. The announcement was made during a meeting in Sao Paulo's City Hall, on March 16th, of grassroots and human rights entities with Osmarino Amancio Rodrigues, the leader of the Rubber Plant Worker's Union of Acre.

The principal object of the October meeting is to publicize the names of those threatened with death, so as to prevent the threats from being carried out and also to call on the authorities to take action against those who are making the threats. At the same time, contact is being made with the widows and widowers of assassinated rural leaders to get them to participate in the event. In their case, an effort is being made to get the government to organize a pension scheme for the families of the murdered rural leaders.

Osmarino, was in Sao Paulo to participate in a public act, at Sao Paulo's City Hall, to demand the capture of Chico Mendes killers, who are still at large after their jail escape in Acre and also to denounce death threats made against himself and other rural workers, by the son of Darli Alves, the landowner that killed Chico Mendes.

According to Osmarino, the rubber plant workers know exactly where Mendes' killers are hiding and although the criminals are heavily armed, the workers have offered to capture them and return them to jail if the police refuse to do so.

UPDATE - Federal government commission doubt official version on rural worker's leader's death.

Within the next few days the Minister for Justice, will receive the final report of the special commission that went to Campo Bonito in Parana, last week, to verify "in loco", the circumstances of the conflict between rural landless workers and the military police, which resulted in the deaths of three secret police and one of the rural leaders, Diniz Bento da Silva, known as Teixeirinha.

The report contests the official version of the State government and military police of Parana, claiming that Teixeirinha was killed in a shoot-out with the police. The rural workers claim that Teixeirinha was captured alive, brutally tortured for hours and then executed in cold blood. The Landless Worker's Movement and the federal government's commission agree that Teixeirinha's wife and son were both tortured by the police to reveal the rural leader's whereabouts.

Among the members of the government commission are Marcelo Lavenere, president of the Federal Council of the Lawyers Association of Brazil (OAB), the journalist, Carlos Chagas, representing the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and Alvaro Ribeiro da Costa of the Attorney General's Office.

- Demonstration against construction of dams.

On March 12, representatives from numerous communities of the Valley of the River Ribeira, State of Sao Paulo, participated in a protest march in the city of Sao Paulo. The marchers went to the headquarters of the State Electricity Company (CESP) who together with a private company - CBA, plan to build four hydro-electric dams on the River Ribeira at Tijuco, Itaoca, Funil and Batatal. The land to be flooded by the construction of the dams is part of one of the few remaining areas of the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlantica). The construction of the dams forms part of a plan entitled Plano (Plan) 2015 of the Federal Government.

Besides the destruction of the Atlantic Forest, the members of the local communities on the protest march denounced that the construction of the dams would bring other serious problems to the region of the Valley of the River Ribeira. Such problems include the expulsion of numerous rural families from their lands resulting in the growth of slums and social problems in the local towns as well as the destruction of the local negro culture and important archaeological sites which to date have not been studied. The areas to the flooded by the construction of the dams contain almost 20 "quilombos' or former slave communities where the negro culture is still very well preserved.

The participants in the protest march demanded a number of measures from the government authorities. Such measures include the resettlement of families affected by work already done on the project; the preservation and environmental recuperation of the Valley of the River Ribeira; the use of a serious policy of economy and conservation of energy and transparency on the part of the government which would guarantee the participation of civil society in decisions regarding development. A number of specific demands in favor of the farming community were also made. These included a definitive solution to the lack of legal documents of land ownership in the region; permission for the local small farmers to engage in subsistence farming; recognition of the quilombos of the region and an agricultural policy geared towards the small producer.

The address of the coordination group of the communities resisting the construction of the dams is as follows:

Movimento dos Ameacados por Barragens - Vale do Ribeira,

Praca Nossa Senhora da Guia 103,

11960-000 Eldorado,

SP., Brazil.

Phone (0138) 71 1215.

- Rubber plant workers prepare protests against hunger.

The rubber plant workers of Acre are planning to take action to combat hunger. With the economic recession and a reduced market for manually produced rubber, their situation has become extremely critical.

They are preparing an "empate", a non-violent protest to prevent logging in the Amazon forests. The tactic was introduced in Acre in the 1980's, by Chico Mendes. Although they are non-violent, the rubber plant workers are constantly being attacked by gunmen, hired by wealthy landowners and lumber merchants.

INDIGENOUS QUESTIONS

- Landowners want to abolish indigenous peoples rights from constitution.

An "action alert" from the Missionary Council for Indigenous Peoples (CIMI) is being sent to all civil organizations and entities, in Brazil and abroad, to warn of the landowners and privileged classes attempt to do away with the rights won by the indigenous people and enshrined in the Constitution of three years ago. "Economic and reactionary interests in Brazil", says CIMI's alert, "are hoping that all the social advances contained in the 1988 text of the constitution be totally suppressed and needless to say, the rights of the indigenous peoples are in the line of fire". According to the Council, the executive and legislative powers of the Brazilian states, especially the States of Maranhao, Roraima and the Amazon, are "most sensitive to the interests of the invaders of indian lands".

- Forum appeals for pressure in favor of indians.

The Permanent Forum for Debates on the Amazon, based in Manaus, is appealing to all NGOs to step up the pressure on President Itamar Franco to maintain the deadline (October 1993) for demarcating all Indian territories, just as article 67 of the 1988 Constitution demands.

The indigenous populations and their support groups are very worried because one of the strongest lobby groups in Brasilia is exactly the one which unites the wealthy landowners, mining and lumber interests, and land-grabbers, who have most to gain by removing from the constitution all the articles referring to rights alredy won by the indians. Letters should be sent to President Itamar Franco, the Minister for Justice, Mauricio Correa and the president of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), Sidney Possuelo, demanding the immediate demarcation and protection for all indian land.

POLITICS

- Worker's Party opts for presidential system.

The results of the internal consultation on March 14, to decide the Worker's Party's position, on the question of the best system and form of government for Brazil, was a landslide victory for the "presidentialists".

Around 80% of the party's members favored this system, against 20% for the parliamentary system. Most of the voters were, undoubtedly, swayed by the fact, that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the party's president, has a very good chance of winning the country's next presidential election, due to be held next year. Nonetheless, those favoring the parliamentary system, intend to continue supporting the "parliamentary" campaign, which could mean further rifts within the party.

As president of the party, Lula - who supported the parliamentary system - has already stated that he accepts the decision of the majority of the party and that he would participate in the campaign for a presidential system of government.

On April 21st, the country will decide two issues: 1. To remain a republic or bring back the monarchy and 2.To keep the presidential system or opt to have a parliament, with a prime minister.

- Forum defends right to use technical know-how.

An open letter to President Itamar Franco, expressing concern about certain aspects of the bill on the ownership and use of industrial know-how and technology, has just been sent by the Forum for the Freedom to Use Industrial Technology and Technological Ownership.

The Forum, based in Brasilia, was founded in February of last year and congregates 120 civil society entities. One of the main aims of the forum is to fight for the right to use technological know-how, a right that hasn't yet been recognized by international conventions.

For the forum, according to the letter, the proposal of any project on industrial technology must be submitted for ample discussion, involving all of society and it's representatives. It should also take into account "the needs of Brazilian society and not simply, be imposed by international pressure or commercial or vested interests". The letter analyses 10 points of the proposed bill (which will soon be voted in Parliament).

The Forum states that it's essential that, no matter what the arguments are, that the following 4 elements should be excluded from any legislation on patents.

1. Living matter, that is: living things, biological matter and processes (This, of course, runs contrary to the United States' position on patents).

2. Pharmaceuticals, medicines and food stuffs (countering absolute international monopolies);

3. Pipelining, which permits retro-active patenting;

4. Business secrets (considered "a perverse mechanism of industrial ownership);

The Forum also defends certain measures.

(a) On the question of imports: measures to protect internal markets;

(b) It defends the transfer of technology (to protect national technology);

(c) On the question of deadlines, the forum defends a 15-year deadline for patents on inventions and a 10-year deadline for industrial design and that the idea that after a certain time all patents should loose their validity;

(d) The Forum calls for the modernization of the system of patents and also

(e) For a national policy on science and technology, to increase the country's capacity for research and move forward to technological independence.

- Pernambuco stops to honor Father Vito.

More than 5 thousand people gathered, last Sunday, to welcome the return of Fr. Vito Miracapillo, back to Brazil, after almost 12 years.

President Itamar Franco recently revoked the expulsion order, decreed by the military dictatorship, which forced Fr. Vito to leave his parish and the country, after he was accused of refusing to celebrate a mass to honor Independence Day. Vito became, overnight, a symbol of the struggle for a return to democracy.

Among the multitude at the airport to welcome Fr. Vito, were the former Archbishop of Recife, d. Helder Camara and the bishop of Palmares, d. Acacio Rodrigues Alves. Vito will be in Brazil till April 1st to renew acquaintances, and have talks and meetings with many christian communities.

WOMEN

- Women protest against adulterated report.

An adulterated version of the report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, on violence against women, published at the end of last year, is causing protests among women's organizations throughout Brazil.

The final version written by the federal deputy, Etevalda de Menezes, omitted the name of Joao Carlos di Genio, a important businessman in the area of teaching and communications and owner of the Objetivo group of schools and courses.

In the original report, di Genio is accused of luring minors into prostitution sessions with high society figures of Brasilia. While the final report puts the matter very generically, stating that "owners of schools lure minors into prostitution". One of the deputies, Sandra Starling refused to sign the report and asked the president of the Parliament, Ibsen Pinheiro to look into the matter, but soon after, Pinheiro was substituted. Sandra took leave from parliament to become Educational Secretary for City of Belo Horizonte, but says she is willing to go back to reconvoke the Parliamentary Commission, to deal specifically with the adulteration of the document.

During the military dictatorship, Joao Carlos di Genio was accused, by human rights organizations, of being one of the collaborators of the OBAN and the DOI-CODI, secret police, together with other businessmen.

CHILDREN

- Brazil's legion of child-workers.

The following is a summary of a report prepared by journalist Ana Cecilia Americano and published by the Jornal do Brasil on February 14 last.

With few dreams and illusions in life, he wakes each morning at 7.00 A.M. in the neighborhood of Morumbi, city of Sao Paulo and arrives at work by 10.00 A.M. in the Praca da Se (the central square of the city of Sao Paulo). He remains there until 9.00 P.M., working for eleven consecutive hours. His lunch is a hurried sandwich in his work-place. With a monthly income of approximately U.S. $160, Verinaldo Severeno da Silva guarantees a significant part of the income of his family in far-away Orobo, State of Pernambuco. This income is earned at his small candy stand. It is a heavy day's work for a youth of 16 years and especially so for a person whose childhood ended at 9 when he was required to start work in the bean plantation of his father in Orobo.

Timid and accepting his lot, Verinaldo is one of the 430 thousand children who work in the Greater Sao Paulo Metropolitan area. However, according to the Inter Trade Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies (Departamento Inter-Sindical de Estatisticas e Estudos Socio-Economicos - Dieese) he is in a more privileged position than 260 thousand other minors in the region. This is the number who entered the work-market but had not found employment until last December. The result is a real army of unemployed minors.

According to Dieese, the unemployment of minors between 10 and 14 years of age increased 31% during 1992 and 54.9% amongst adolescents between 15 and 17 years of age. In 1989, the Government Statistics Department (IBGE) calculated that Brazil had 1.3 million children working and earning between one and two minimum salaries (by today's rate approximately between US $70 and 140 per month). However even this is far from the reality of the situation of the majority of the employed children. In the same year (1989), 1.5 million children earned less than 25% of the minimum salary per month whilst a further 1.7 million minors had an income of between a quarter and half a minimum salary. According to current law, such children are clearly suffering an injustice since the law prohibits that any child should earn less than a minimum salary.

The law even goes further. It prohibits that minors be required to work over-time, to work in unhealthy conditions or in situations which require strong physical exertion. It prohibits that children under 12 years of age be employed and it demands that firms be flexible with the work period of minors so that they may have the opportunity to study. Laws on the statute books are one thing, what happens in reality is completely different. Following is a breakdown of statistics for this area supplied by the Government Statistics Office (IBGE). These statistics, which are the most recent available, date from 1988 and 1989.

Total of minors working in Brazil: 7.5 million.

Minors working and not registered :

Between 10 and 14 years of age: 89.4% of the total.

Between 15 and 17 years of age: 65.4% of the total.

Minors who work more than 40 hours per week: 46.5% of the total.

Salary of minors:

Earning up to a quarter minimum salary: 1.5 million.

Earning between a quarter and half minimum salary: 1.7 million.

Earning between a half and one minimum salary: 2 million

Earning between one and two minimum salaries: 1.3 million.

Earning over two minimum salaries: 750 thousand.

Distribution of the working minors according to sectors of the economy:

Agriculture: 10.4%.

Industry: 18.5%.

Construction: 6.8%.

Commerce: 18.4%.

Diverse services: 31.8%

Other occupations: 14.1%.

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