Number 99, October 30, 1993

HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS

- Analysis of police violence in Rio de Janeiro.

On September 28, 8 people, said by police to be drug traffickers, and 7 Civil Police officers were killed in a four hour long shoot-out in the favelas of Acari, in the northern zone of Rio de Janeiro. Nearly 5000 shots and 50 grenades were fired in the confrontation between 160 civil, federal, and military police, and drug traffickers. 17 people were injured, and 3 homes were destroyed. One of the homes was used by the gang of the drug trafficker "Parazao" to store weapons.

The following analysis of the Acari conflict and the police situation in Rio was written by Claudia Petrina, of the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE).

One month after the traumatic massacre at Vigario Geral, we have witnessed another shoot-out, this time in the Coroado favela in Acari.

The causes of this latest police operation are different from that of Vigario Geral, but there is a connection between the two: the culture of violence as a form of "combat" and at the same time of contention with criminal elements in the city.

What we have seen recently is the armed struggle among groups, where the level of interconnection between police and drug traffickers is so great that we cannot distinguish who is on the side of order. It was exactly in the name of this order, that a plan of action was elaborated in which the Army and the Federal Police will be able to work together in the fight against drug traffickers in the hills of Rio.

Today it is undeniable that within the Military Police there are a large number of officers who have made a compact with organized crime (narcotraffic, extermination of children, numbers games, kidnaping, etc.). But rather than giving itself characteristics which are appropriate for a different police system (the army), the government should totally restructure its police (federal, civil, and military), making it more ethical and efficient, each group accountable to its own attributes, and committed to the protection of the population and seeing the people as the enemy and to carrying out its role on the side of civil society, not against it.

The efficiency of the police intervention in Acari should be made relative, mainly because the origin of the complex scheme of narcotraffic is not in the hills (they are only the points of redistributing the drugs), but on the borders, where drugs arrive from other countries. It is principally at this level that the action of the Federal Police must be efficient, undermining narcotraffic at its roots.

There is a problem which comes before, and is the producer of violence-the omission of the State, principally in places where the population lives in absolute misery. It is this situation of social exclusion, of denial of life, of citizens rights, of law, in which so many people live, and which makes them the easy victims of institutionalized violence and the easy targets of criminal groups.

The constant state of panic of those who live in favelas, who so often find themselves in the line of fire, as was the case in Vigario Geral, reveals the lack of value their lives have. What is the value of the life of a person who earns one-half a minimum salary each month and who cannot look beyond the horizon of the hills and hope for better days in this no man's land? It appears this person's life is poorly esteemed by those in power, and this person winds up paying double by dying physically and socially.

It is up to civil society to be the voice calling for the reversal of this situation of disrespect towards life, of social barbarity, and hold the State accountable for effective policies committed to life, to the fight against misery and impunity, along with institutional measures which transform public security policy into the defense of citizens. The eradication of violence is directly linked to improving the quality of life, the development of democracy, and the conquest of citizens rights.

- Priest condemns violence in Sao Felix do Xingu.

(The following contains passages from an open letter to lumber merchants, ranchers, land grabbers, and civil and military police, written by Father Adriano Sella, of Sao Felix do Xingu, in the state of Para, on August 28, 1993):

The serious situation of violence, injustice, oppression, and persecution which our people of Sao Felix do Xingu are experiencing causes me to write this open letter to those responsible for this violence and to plead: Enough. Stop.

There is so much violence and injustice in the streets, in the police station, in the fields, in the forest!

All these events violate human rights. Because of them the peasants have no peace on their land. They are extorted by ranchers, lumber merchants, and land grabbers who invade their lands. Violence results, with the use of weapons, with the actions of gunmen, with attempts to bribe those who have the right to build a home on that ground. This is contrary to human life and to God.

To you, lumber merchants, ranchers, and land grabbers, the death of a land settler is a trophy.

To us, in solidarity with every person, this death is an outrage.

To you, the new gold called mahogany is worth more. It creates much profit, and fills your pockets with dollars, while you feel no pain over a lost life, a destroyed home, or a child without parents.

To us, this is modern idolatry and human blindness, that you do not see the value of life which cannot be bought with dollars from the capitalist world.

I plead with you: Stop the violence. Stop the persecution of our poor people.

I state that your hands are cursed because one holds dollars and the other bears the blood of those killed in order to get rich.

I accuse you of being responsible for this situation which gets worse every day, bringing more death to our people.

There is more violence and injustice caused by the civil and military police: minors imprisoned and submitted to inhuman treatment; persons beaten to death; assassinations without motive; peasants intimidated and threatened to the point of removing their freedom of movement.

I implore you: Stop acting like death squads. Stop the threats and persecutions against our people.

I affirm that your hands are also cursed because the right hand holds the revolver to threaten and kill and the left uses handcuffs to seize and beat, leaving marks of blood and terror.

You lumber merchants, ranchers, land grabbers and police accuse us of being communists, agitators, Workers Party members, and say that we should take care of our flock, without being involved in land and social issues.

I wish to say to you that we are Christians in love with the God of the Bible: the God of life, the One who was never afraid and will never abandon the cause of the poor and little ones.

The children of this God of Jesus Christ are the land settlers, the migrants, children, the blacks, the prisoners, the indians.

You who are responsible for this violence, I am convinced that you too have a heart and soul which want justice and peace; but you are seduced by money, by dollars, by the great amounts of land, by order with oppression, by security with repression.

I invite you to cultivate much more that part of you which is more beautiful and human. I do not have the power to judge you, but I will always have the strength and courage to criticize, denounce, and unmask you whenever there is violence, death, and oppression against my suffering people.

I will remain on the side of the poor, and I will wait for you to join me on this side.

- Catholic University and Justice and Peace Commission begin human rights education program.

The Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo recently initiated a project in education for human rights.

On September 27, the commission signed an agreement with the Catholic University to work together to train educators in human rights issues. The agreement also calls for providing consultants to schools, and organizing courses for students, trade unionists, and community-based groups. It will also develop teaching materials and methods to be used in human rights education.

In order to have an understanding of educators' conception of human rights, the commission requested the public opinion research firm IBOPE to conduct a nationwide poll. The survey found that teachers and school directors understand human rights as being inherent, and cited housing, health, education, a life lived with dignity, freedom, a just salary, and free will as basic rights. However, the educators considered these rights to be absolutely nonexistent in Brazil.

A possible solution to this problem, according to the educators, is grassroots level work, through education, which has as its goal consciousness-raising and organizing of citizens to fight for their rights. The use of political pressure was seen as an exercise of human rights.

Maria Victoria Benevides of the Justice and Peace Commission, said that there has been a manipulation and perversion of the idea of human rights. "With this project, we wish to propose new actions of conscience through the mobilization of city and state school teachers."

- 41% of Brazilians live in misery.

Almost half of all Brazilians - 41% - live today below the poverty line, that is, earn less than $2 a day. Of this group, 18.7% live miserably: they are considered by the World Bank as persons who are in a state of extreme poverty. The study of income distribution in Latin America shows Brazil as a serious case. Brazilians, in general, think of Haiti, Paraguay, or even Bolivia as the more extreme cases. But 44% of the poorest people in this hemisphere are in Brazil - which, ironically, is the richest country of the region, being responsible for 40% of the Latin-American Gross National Product.

The study shows that the determining factor of this misery is education, or to be more precise, the lack of education. Two-thirds of the increase in misery in this country in the last 30 years is attributed to this area. The study also shows other areas of great imbalance in Brazil. In terms of income, the indicators of the state of Rio Grande do Sul are the same as Korea and Portugal, while the numbers in reference to the state of Paraiba are comparable to Kenya. The infant mortality rate in Brazil is even greater - 83 per thousand, while in Argentina it is 35 per thousand.

This study also shows that Brazil is the leader in mal-nutrition. More that 5 million children eat much less than is necessary. The second worst country in Latin America is Mexico, where 1.9 million children are in this situation. In Peru, the malnourished children number 429 thousand.

POLITCAL NEWS

- Admiral comments on the role of a possible overthrow.

On Oct. 1, 1993, Admiral Mario Cesar Flores, Minister of the

Department of Strategic Matters (SAE) stated that he fears an institutional upheaval if the upcoming constitutional revision does not come up with solutions for the problems of the country. "There is not a climate for a classical overthrow with a strong military presence," he said. "But, if the distortions of the Constitution are not corrected and the crisis not resolved, then in six months to a year, society could demand solutions that are not orthodox." He made these remarks when questioned about the

possibility of an overthrow of the government, or a type of coup as was executed by President Fujimori in Peru.

The Admiral said that he does not see that this is the time and that he has strong hope that the revision will call for a "constitutional and normal" exit for the crisis. He ended his interview by stating, "If this is not solved, then the future will be a very worrying unknown."

In a decision which surprised the political world on October 5, federal Supreme Court Judge Marco Aurelio Mello ruled that the congressional vote to begin the constitution revision on October 6 was illegal, because there were not enough members in Congress

to make a quorum at the time of the vote.

The president of the Congress, Senator Humberto Lucena, stated that Mello's ruling interfered with the internal workings of a branch of government, and is appealing to the entire Supreme Court to overturn the decision.

- Workers' Party (PT) Workshop on MERCOSUL.

On Sept. 23-25, 1993, the Workers' Party (PT) held a workshop in Curitiba, Parana, to look at the question of MERCOSUL, its character and affect on the economy, society and culture of the people. The workshop produced the following statement:

For the PT, it is indispensable to incorporate the historic tradition of the liberators of this continent - the integration of the Latin American peoples - as a condition of our affirmation of the whole MERCOSUL process.

The participants in this workshop are in favor of the economic, social, cultural integration of the people and against the exclusive, anti-democratic character as expressed in the neo-liberal optic assumed by the present model of MERCOSUL. The organized sectors of the Brazilian, Argentinian, Uruguayan and Paraguayan societies must broaden their participation in this process of integration, a process now controlled by the state and big business. This fact has allowed the interests of the large transnational conglomerates to place themselves above the state and to place obstacles to the demands of the workers in the MERCOSUL dynamic.

The participants in this workshop saw the process of integration as long term, which will be articulated in the developing of a National Project of each member nation, safeguarding its historical, economic, social, political, and cultural profile, and working to resolve the grave distortions and injustices that weigh heavily on the people.

The project of integration, as seen by the participants, rejects the neo-liberal perspective that tries to make MERCOSUL exclusively short-term: building a "free market" area to optimize profit and to use the established capacity of production as a platform to compete in the large world market. In this moment, when the world is witnessing a truly commercial war, the PT cannot allow a project of integration of the Southern Cone be subject to the conditions of the large power blocks, but must democratically consolidate this process in order to guarantee the interest of the people.

The PT assumes the promise to struggle for the defense of democracy and human rights, indispensable in its role of building this process.

Democracy, the defense of human rights, and the Letter of Social Rights will be the basic condition to bring together the process of continental integration.

WOMEN AND HEALTH

- Government to distribute IUDs and diaphragms.

Beginning October 10, the 46 million Brazilian women of childbearing age will have access to two more birth control methods. Copper IUDs and diaphragms will be distributed to public hospitals connected to the federal unified health system (SUS). With this action, the Ministry of Health intends to decrease the number of tubal ligations done in Brazil. This operation has already affected 14 million (44%) of the 33 million women who use some method of birth control.

The IUDs and diaphragms, whose unit cost are CR$1,200 and CR$1,400 (about US$9 and US$10) respectively, will be paid for by SUS. With the distribution of these contraceptives, the Secretary of Health Assistance expects to increase, in the next few months, from 500 thousand to 2 million the number of women who use these methods. The Pill is used by 12 million women, but is not distributed by SUS as yet.

Secretary Carlos Mosconi explained, "The objective is to give to low income families free access to these contraceptives for family planning." Mosconi also said that the Health Ministry's Family Planning Department has been distributing condoms to the states, but that these are many used in prevention campaigns against AIDS and venereal diseases.

The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil criticized the Health Ministry's decision. Bishop president Luciano Mendes de Almeida affirmed that the Church condemns any type of artificial method of birth control.

HOUSING

- Housing movements camp out at Sao Paulo city hall.

Dissatisfied with the treatment given them by Mayor Paulo Maluf, grassroots movements of the Union of Housing Movements in Sao Paulo began a three day encampment in front of the Mayor's office on October 4. The Union represents 50,000 without housing, and works with the Catholic Church's Housing Apostolate.

Over 1000 people marched from the center of the city to City Hall to begin the encampment. Their march was blocked by trucks belonging to the city, apparently placed to prevent marchers from reaching their destination. A city transit director said the truck barricades were intended "to prevent one more demonstration from disrupting traffic."

The marchers were able to push the trucks out of their way. When they reached City Hall, they removed barricades placed in front of the building, which was guarded by shock troops. One man had his arm broken in a confrontation with police.

A commission of housing movement members was able to meet with one of the mayor's representatives, but was told that there would be no negotiations. Between 500 and 1000 people have camped out in front of City Hall each night of the protest.

The Union gave the following reasons for the protest: "Maluf promised 120 thousand homes in his electoral campaign but has done nothing up until now; the 'mutiroes' (community housing projects using material furnished by the city government) are stopped; the urbanization of favelas has no resources; the 'corticos' (substandard collective housing) are paralyzed."

The Union is calling for "new 'mutiroes', the release of funds for existing 'mutiroes', the restarting of infrastructure construction, the settling of land titles, the continuation of the 'cortico' rehabilitation programs, and construction in clandestine lot divisions."

These demands were presented to the mayor several months ago. The mayor's response to the encampment was that he would not be "blackmailed" by the housing movements, which he sees as connected to the Workers Party, and that "mutiroes" which have their accounts in order continue to receive funds. Housing movement coordinator Paulo Conforto said that the city could call in an independent auditor to see if there are any financial irregularities on the part of the "mutiroes."

The Union has stated that it costs US$6000 to construct a 60 square meter house, using the "mutirao" system. The same house built by private contractors costs twice as much. Since assuming office in January, Maluf has favored contractors over grassroots housing movements in granting housing construction funds.

The housing movements' next step is to occupy 14 areas owned by the city, in an attempt to provoke the mayor to return to the negotiating table. These areas were named by the Maluf administration in April as sites for the construction of 8000 low-income housing units. "We will occupy these sites, since the mayor did not want to meet with us during our stay at City Hall," said Paulo Conforto.

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