Number 98, September 30, 1993

HUMAN RIGHTS

- Historic verdict in Parque Sao Lucas jail massacre

Police investigator Celso Jose da Cruz was found guilty for the deaths of 18 prisoners at the 42nd Police District in Parque Sao Lucas on February 5, 1989. He was sentenced to 516 years in prison, the largest sentence ever handed down by a jury in Brazil.

The massacre occurred after 50 prisoners attempted to escape from the jail on that day. None were successful. All 50 prisoners were forced to pass between two lines of Military Police and were beaten. After the beating, all were forced into a cell, 1.5 meters x 3 meters. without any ventilation. All were forced to remain in the cell for one and a half hours. When they were taken from the cell 18 were dead from suffocation.

Celso Cruz, along with the other officers accused in the killings, warden Jose Ribeiro and police delegate Eduardo Vasconcelos, were still working for the Civil Police in other areas of Sao Paulo before the trial. The only discipline that they had received was a 30 day suspension. Celso Cruz said that the decision to maintain the prisoners confined to the cell was that of two other police deputies who were not present at the moment of the attempted escape.

The jurors pronounced that Celso Cruz was guilty of premeditated homicide, that he inflicted cruel punishment, acted out of vengeance, and did not allow the victims to defend themselves against asphyxiation.

Prosecutor Antonio Carlos da Ponte said, "This verdict is important because it opens a precedent against the impunity that the police enjoy in this country. It is an alert to the authorities and calls halt to the cycle of massacres in Brazil."

Jose Ribeiro will be judged next month and Eduardo Vasconcelos in February, 1994.

- Police violence in Rio Maria, Para

The National Secretariat of the Catholic Church's Land Pastoral Commission (CPT), along with the Rural Workers Union in Rio Maria, Para, and the Rio Maria Committee, have denounced the "arbitrary acts" committed by the DOPS (Division of Social and Poltical Order) of Belem, and by the Civil and Military Police of Xinguara and Rio Maria in the investigation of the murders of ranchers Fabio Abreu Viera and Annio Carlos Stivalle.

Viera, owner of the Monte Azul ranch, was shot in an ambush September 2. He was accompanied by four armed guards in his pick-up truck, and escorted by a military vehicle.

In a statement released September 24, the CPT said that "despite serious accusations that Viera collected the ears of murdered farmworkers, and despite the disappearances last February of two land settlers of the Mata Azul ranch, we repudiate all lethal crimes as well as arbitrary acts and violence committed in the investigations."

The CPT said that DOPS agents and Civil and Military Police, "supplied with a strange mandate by Judge Rosana Lucia de Canelas Bastos, entered, by force, all the shacks in Mata Azul and neighboring ranches" and practiced "a lamentable operation of terrorism against anyone found in the area."

The judge's mandate was unusual because her jurisdiction does not include Rio Maria nor Conceicao de Araguaia, where Monte Axul is located. "There were imprisonments without cause and without judicial order, as in the case of farmworkers Osoaria and Jucelino." The former president of the Rio Mara Rural Workers Union, Poereira da Roca, was sequestered on September 20 by four armed men in a red van belonging to the Military Police.

Another "disappeared" farmworker is Gaspar Rosa da Silva, who went to get his animals in Bela Vista on September 18, and has not been seen since. The CPT said that "in this region, members of the Civil Police are conducting a genuine hunt against farmworkers. Dona Reginalda, Gaspar's wife, when told by the police about her husband's disappearance, said, 'Bring the body back here when they find it'"

The CPT "deplores these arbitrary actions which go on even though they have been denounced a number of times in the past."

The organization calls on Para Governor Jader Barbalho to take "energetic and urgent steps to guarantee that basic citizens rights are respected and that the authors of these acts are punished."

Messages denouncing the police actions and urging justice may be sent to:

Governador Jader Barbalho

Av.August Monte Negro

Km 09

66823-010 Belem, PA

(fax) 091-248-1107 or 248-1038

and to:

Presidente do Tribunal de Justica do Para]

Dra. Maria Lucia Gomes Marcos dos Santos

Pca. Felipe Patroni, s/n

66000 Belem, PA

(fax)091-241-2970

- Update on the Vigario Geral massacre in Rio.

The Division of the Defense of Life (DDV) of the Civil Police in Rio de Janeiro has discovered the existence of seven groups of extermination. These groups are made up of civil, military police, former police officers and informants. Some members of these seven groups are now in jail, being accused of the violent killings in Vigario Geral in Rio.

Each of these groups has a certain area in Rio that is considered their territory. Each area is respected by the members of the other groups. The massacre of Vigario Geral happened when members of the seven groups met in order to avenge the killing of one of their members the evening previous.

According to the the police, these group members have connections in the business community and with politicians who give alibis for those accused of killings. Deputy Elias Gomes Barbosa, who is doing the investigation for the DDV, believes that these police members are involved in kidnapings, extortion, assassinations, and the contraband of arms.

There is some connection between the assassinations in Vigario Geral and the killings of the street children in Candalaria, Rio, in June of this year. In this latter case, two new witnesses say that the wife of one of the police officers

accused in the Vigario Geral massacre was hit by a car when she tried to flee from youth who were attempting to assault her. This case was never registered at the police station. The husband began to investigate the case on his own, in order to find out who the youth were who attacked his wife.

In the Vigario Geral case, a key witness has given testimony that the police entered this shanty town looking for drug traffickers, but found none. In their frustration, they went into a bar where a number of persons were celebrating the victory of the Brazilian national soccer team. The police asked for the documents of all those present in the bar. All showed proof of their residency and work. On leaving one of the police threw a noise bomb in the midst of those in the bar. They began to complain about this action. Because of their complaints, all 12 were assassinated. The police then went to the house in front of the bar. At one time, this house was owned by a drug trafficker. The police entered the house, found 13 people there, five of whom were children. The police found no drugs nor arms. The residents of the house were members of an evangelical religious group. As they were leaving, the mask of one of the police fell off. They then decided to kill all within the house, so as no one would be able to identify any of the police.

- First anniversary of the Carandiru prison massacre.

Sunday, October 2 is the first anniversary of the massacre of 111 prisoners in the Sao Paulo state prison, Carandiru. None of the Military Police commanders involved in this massacre have been charged. In fact, all are still active in other positions of command. Only the state Secretary of Public Order and Safety at the time of the massacre was removed from office. It has been months since the media, newspapers and television, have mentioned this event.

The Prison Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo will sponsor a memorial mass at the Sao Paulo cathedral on October 10.

POLITICAL NEWS

- A Constitution revision primer.

Congress voted on September 29 to begin a revision of the federal Constitution on October 6.

The September issue of "Sem Terra", the journal of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), published the following explanation of the revision and some of the issues at stake:

The current federal Constitution of Brazil went into effect October 5, 1988. There was much discussion and argument regarding its elaboration. The Sarney government had managed to elect a majority of the constitutional delegates, mainly due to the "success" of the Plano Cruzado economic plan.

Although there were some advancements, most of the Constitution does not represent the needs and concerns of the Brazilian people. The constitutional revision is one more "coup" attempt on the part of the elites, the government, and the large landowners to divert attention and delay a solution to the serious problems of the nation.

There are two ways to change a constitutional law:

1) Constitutional amendment. This is the most common way to modify the Constitution, but also the most difficult. It requires the initiative of one-third of the federal deputies, and 27 senators, or one-half the country's state legislatures. Each house of Congress gets to vote on the amendment twice. Since 1988, 200 amendments have been proposed, but only three have been approved.

2) Constitutional revision. Article 3 of the Act of Transitory Constitutional Intentions provides for the revision

beginning five years after the promulgation of the Constitution. Constitutional changes may be approved by an absolute majority of Congress (293 votes).

The Constitution does not say when the revision must begin. It could be October, 1993, or in 1994, 1995, etc. Neither is there a consensus in Congress as to whether or not should even be a revision. Conservative federal deputies, who make up the majority of Congress, are in favor of a revision beginning now. Another group of deputies defends a revision in 1995, after next year's national elections. This would give the people a change to know how their candidates would vote on proposed constitutional changes.

There are three positions regarding the scope of the revision:

1) Unrestricted revision. Supporters of this position say that all laws can be modified, just as in a new constitutional assembly.

2) Broad revision. Every thing may be revised, except what is prohibited by the Constitution: the universal, secret, and direct vote; the federative form of the State; separation of powers; individual rights and guarantees.

3) Restricted revision. The revision should be restricted to the results of last April's plebliscite. If the people had chosen the monarchial or parliamentary systems of government, a constitutional revision would be necessary. Since the presidential system was maintained, very little should be modified in the Constitution.

Another option beginning to take shape is that of the "big amendment". In this case, the revision would deal with, in the economic area, tax reform, the role of the State in the economy, and ending the state monopoly of petroleum production and telecommunications. Politically, there could be a change in the current representation of states in the lower house of Congress. This new position must be understood as a conciliatory attempt to stop the anti-revision movement.

Business leaders and large landowners have their own agenda for the revision. The National Conference of Industries took a survey of business leaders, and found that they want to make sweeping changes in the Constitution.

In terms of social rights, business wants: to restrict the job guarantee of a fixed salary base; to limit employee participation in business profits; reduce paternity leave; end retirement based on number of years worked; suppress the power of labor courts; and end employer contributions to social security.

Business owners also want to see the passing of public funds to private, for-profit health care institutions, and the participation of foreign capital in that area. They wish to place more limits on taxes and interest rates, and eliminate the differences between business and national and foreign capital.

Large landowners are having auctions and collecting money to "influence deputies" and guarantee the blocking of agrarian reform. They want a law which permits expropriation only through payment in cash for the market price of the land, and that this payment be made before the government receives land title. This would make agrarian reform totally inviable, and turn expropriations into big business for ranchers.

Popular movements and organizations of civil society are planning protests in Brasilia against the revision on October 4 and 5.

CHILDREN

- States suspend international adoption processes.

Two northeastern states have suspended all adoption processes of Brazilian children to Italy after the former Health Minister of France, Leon Schwartzenberg, in a speech in the European Parliament, said that adopted Brazilian children were sold to the mafia group Camorra for removal of their organs. Schwartzenberg who is a member of the parliament and author of legislation to prohibit trading in human organs in the European Community, declared that of the 4000 Brazilian children taken to Italy between 1988 and 1992, 3000 were sent to clandestine clinics in Mexico, Thailand, and Europe for organ removal.

Italy's Justice Minister, Giovanne Conso, said that all Brazilian children adopted in the last 5 years "were happily integrated into their adoptive families."

The Pernambuco State Judicial Adoption Commission has stopped issuing eligibility findings for Italian citizens wanting to adopt children from that state. The Commission considers the response it received from the Italian embassy to its request for "conclusive clarifications" regarding Schwartzenberg's charges "insufficient". Since July, the Commission has approved the adoption of 70 children by Italian citizens.

The State Court of Ceara has also suspended indefinitely international adoptions. The suspension will be in effect at least until the state adoption commission reviews a Ceara legislative report citing irregularities in 1900 international adoption cases. According to state legislator Paulo Duarte, chair of the investigating commissions on adoptions, 13 persons, including seven lawyers and one judge, were involved in adoption fraud.

The Attorney General of the state of Paraiba sent to the Federal Police a request for Interpol and the Brazilian Foreign Ministry to investigate Schwartzenberg's accusations. In a letter to Federal Police delegate Francisco Gomes da Silva, who has investigated child trafficking in Paraiba for 5 years, Attorney General Eitel Santiago de Brito Pereira said that the charges "reveal a criminal monstrosity which calls for thorough investigation." 74 Paraiba children were adopted by Italian citizens from 1988 to 1992. Pereira wants Interpol to locate the children and find out in what conditions they are living.

The human rights coordinator of the Rio Grande do Norte Attorney General's office has also asked the Foreign Ministry to locate 75 children adopted by foreigners.

- Update on kidnaping charges by Sao Paulo court.

The Sao Paulo section of the Brazilian Lawyers Association (OAB) has sent a dossier to the Sao Paulo State Court Auditor requesting an investigation of Judge Osvaldo Palotti Junior, of the Children and Youth Court of Pinheiros, city of Sao Paulo. In the dossier, 9 families accuse Palotti of removing their children from them without due process. (See "News from Brazil: Parents Denounce Kidnapings by Sao Paulo Court", September 2, 1993) Two other families who made similar charges have gotten their children back, but have "disappeared."

Judge Palotti was named in the Congressional Investigation Commission on violence against children as inducing Brazilian families to accept international adoption, showing children photos of their future homes, and offering financial assistance to their parents. The federal Supreme Magisterial Council initiated a process against Palotti, but accepted the judge's explanations, and closed the case. However, recent testimony to the OAB by families with missing children has again called attention to the judge's actions.

Palotti told the weekly newsmagazine "Isto E" that he "would give an arm" to know why there is such media interest in the charges. "It's natural that mothers separated from their children make every type of accusation. It's the same thing as asking the 7000 prisoners of the House of Detention if they think it's fair to be in prison."

The nine families fear that their children may be sent abroad. At least 2 of the families have searched the FEBEM (state child detention) units in Sao Paulo for the past year, and not found their children. According to "Isto E", "the fear is justified because Judge Palotti is openly favorable to international adoption as a 'solution to concrete cases'". The number of children adopted by foreign citizens out of Palotti's court accounts for 40% of all adoptions there. The federal Children and Adolescent Statute permits international adoption as an "exceptional measure."

The issue of international adoption is polemical in Brazil. Maria Ines Bierrembach, president of the Teotonio Vilela Human Rights Commission, says that "systematic international adoption is a reversal of priorities. It solves nothing." Rio de Janeiro Judge Jorge Uchoa believes that those who criticize international adoption are "preaching the nationalization of misery." But for Simone Maria da Silva, whose son Wallace turned one last week, and whom she has not seen since he was taken from her since June, the issue is simple: she like the eight other families, is fighting to get her child back.

The reproduction of this material is permitted as long as the source is cited.