In this week's News from Brazil:
State’s Omission Aggravates Violence in Espirito Santo Prison
By Patricia Benvenuti
On May 25th, the Justice Department of the state of Espirito Santo ordered the Viana (Cascuvi) House of Custody, located in the metropolitan region of Vitoria, to be closed. No other prisoner may enter, and the nearly 1,200 current prisoners will need to be transferred to other units.
The closing of the jail, which has a 390-person capacity, was the result of inspections done in the last few weeks by members of the National Council of Justice (CNJ). In their visit of Cascuvi, the judges noted that the buildings are decrepit and insecure, and that there are violations of human rights.
According to denouncements received by the National Council of Criminal Policy for Penitentiaries (CNPCP), the prisoners are constantly submitted to torture. There have even been cases of body dismemberment.
The CNJ’s inspections revealed that the chaotic situation of Cascuvi involves not just this unit. In the Department of Police Justice (DPJ) of Vila Velha, for example, 281 people share a cell with a capacity of 36 persons, while in the Novo Horizonte Prison, in the municipality of Serra in greater Vitoria, the prisoners are held in provisional “containers” which are used as cells.
Because of these situations, the CNPCP has solicited federal intervention. Meanwhile, these denouncements come as no surprise to Fr. Gunther Alois Zgubic, the national coordinator of the church’s Prison Ministry. In Zgubic’s view, the violence enacted on the prisoners is aggravated by the complicity of the authorities, who upon becoming aware of the violence, take no action. “It is absolutely absurd. It is a concentration camp. You see photos of bodies in situations worse than a meat factory, horrible things, and the government looks and does absolutely nothing,” said Zgubic.
In the following interview, the priest talks about the disrespect given to the prisoners, the state’s neglect in relation to the violence, and the difficulties in denouncing the horrible conditions of the prisons.
Brasil de Fato (BF): What is the situation of the prison system of Espirito Santo?
Fr. Gunther Alois Zgubic: The prison system in Espirito Santo has already been denounced by human rights organizations, but finally has come to the public’s attention. What is really happening in Espirto Santo? Espirito Santo is traditionally the most violent and corrupt state in the country. Its public institutions in the area of security, through pressure from society and maybe through federal intervention, are only now beginning to advance, and it is becoming a more democratic state and respecting the basic rights of their citizens.
BF: What are the conditions of the prison units and the prisoners?
In the Cascuvi unit with more than a 1,000 prisoners--totally overcrowded conditions--the government refused to remodel the prison after a riot which destroyed much of the unit, including doors being yanked off. The government said, “Since you destroy buildings, we are not going to invest in you.” The government does not even know how many prisoners there are in the unit, and how many have been killed. By law, there should be a daily count of prisoners, especially for prisoners who come from violent backgrounds, so that the prisoners do not end up killing each other.
Last year, for example, on an average of every two months, they found body parts. This just happened again a few days ago. Already eleven prisoners have been killed. But nobody really knows how many other prisoners have been killed because the state denies entrance into these units. The prisoners are alone, the government delivers the food to the gate, but no one goes in. Who rules inside really are not the prison guards but the military police. When prisoners are called up for trial, they are chained, go practically kneeling with the police pointing guns at their heads.
It is truly absurd, a concentration camp. You see photos of bodies in situations worse than a meat factory, horrible things, and the government looks and does absolutely nothing. Or what they say is “we are building new prisons,” but do so very slowly, even though they admit the government has not cut funding, contrary to other policies. It is a case of utter chaos. There are decades of social debt. So the government should invest, and remove people, and put guards inside so that the few that are in organized crime, terrorizing the other 1000 prisoners, may no longer have power.
BF: In your evaluation, is this a case of neglect on the part of the state?
It is a case of total neglect not only in regard to this prison. We also have the cases of the infamous “container” prisons, two stories high and no running water and other deplorable conditions. The state is showing that it is building, but for years the problems have not been resolved. And there are other cases. Not long ago, there was a case we denounced involving a member of the military police, who was a torturer, a drunk and a drug addict. He organized drug trade, and illegally maintained adolescents in the old prison of Colatina. He beat the kids. And nobody did anything. The employees of the Secretary of Justice say to me, “Padre, we can’t do our job because the military police have illegally imposed their rule.” A state which is not capable of providing minimal conditions, in this case the prison system, needs intervention and monitoring from national and even international authorities.
So we are happy that the CNPCP has highlighted the denouncements and the documentation, which includes photos, that show the challenges and will take the issue up with General Procurator of the Republic. We from the Prison Ministry are also going to do a national campaign from our bases so that this will become a federal case.
BF: Why did it take authorities so long to make a decision regarding the prison system in Espirito Santo? Do you believe that the situation wasn’t getting the attention it deserved?
On the part of the media, yes. There are many states where the media is simply a slave to the elite. So to denounce something in Espirito Santo is nearly impossible. In order for this case, this scandal, to become known in Espirito Santo and nationally, we need the press from Sao Paulo, or Rio de Janeiro, or Brasilia. So you see what we have is a pseudo-democracy. Clearly, it is not morals that will resolve certain policies. What this case needs is intervention and help in establishing a basic or minimal quality of life that a states needs to be considered democratic and just. We have another case where a judge hired someone to kill another judge who refused to be a part of the drug trafficking and the organized corruption of the penal system. So what happened? The judge was caught and given an alternative sentence. A judge who through organized crime kills a fellow judge, who was someone who could have helped us who want an ethical legal system.... This shows that the Espirto Santo legal system and other institutions do not have power. If organized crime rules it is because humans rights are not even minimally respected.
Source: Brasil de Fato, May 28, 2009
NEWS FROM BRAZIL
supplied by Brazil Justice Net
Number 610, May 25, 2009
In this week's News from Brazil:
The Acaua Dam: Tragedy and Violation of Human Rights
Transposition of the Sao Francisco River Like Computer Full of Viruses, states Dom Cappio
The Acaua Dam: Tragedy and Violation of Human Rights
Until the end of the 1990's, 4,500 rural families lived on the banks of the Paraiba River. They lived in humble but dignified conditions. Their houses were made of adobe, they ate what they planted on the fertile soil, they got their water from the river, and they had access to education, health and recreation--public services available to them in the municipalities of Itatuba, Natube and Aroeiras in the state of Paraiba. This until the federal and state governments decided to dam up the river in order to make a reservoir. This changed the lives of these families forever. And it is easy to say if it was for the better or not.
Today in Brazil there are no laws which define and establish the rights of those who are affected by the building of dams. There is not even a public office charged with issuing payments for land and resettling those who homes and lives are destroyed. Thus, there are many cases of injustice and violation of human rights in the process of installing a dam. The case of the Acaua Dam is one of the worst in the country.
The families who were affected by the construction of the dam were moved to "agrovilas," which really were villas without the agriculture. The villa is simply a set of identical houses placed in what is essentially a desert, lacking the most basic conditions for decent human living--there are no public services nor is there means by which the families can return to their productive lives. MAB (Movement of those Affected by Dams) has denounced the situation to officials, and according to Osvaldo Bernando da Silva, the MAB state coordinator in Paraiba, the families are not even able to plant and have come to depend on government food for survival: "The only way the people have been able to survive is through persistence. After various protests and public audiences, MAB was able to secure government food and cisterns for the families."
The government's Special Defense Commission for Human Rights visited the resettlement project of those affected by the Acaua Dam last year, and presented a report confirming the denouncements MAB had made. They suggested emergency measures to be taken by the federal and state governments. Until today, not one measure has been taken.
The Federal Public Ministry of Paraiba has placed a civil law suit against the Union for not conferring means of livelihood that the inhabitants had possessed before the dam. "This situation, of thousands of people being thrown into these housing projects in the middle of nowhere, making it impossible for them to engage in any productive activity, urgently demands the adoption of measures that may support the most elementary of necessities (food, school, pre-school, public health, public transportation, public security, recreation) for those being relocated until the governmental obligation to confer to these families a sustainable means of living is completed," argued the Public Ministry.
Acaua is not an isolated case. In all states, those affected by dams are at the mercy of the dam company owners who are interested only in profit and not human rights. In Acaua, there is much tension over the many injustices suffered. But those families have not given up, and are ready to struggle for their rights.
Source: Jornal do MAB, April 2009
Transposition of the Sao Francisco River Like Computer Full of Viruses, states Dom Cappio
by Marcelo Netto Rodrigues
On May 9th, Bishop dom Luiz Flavio Cappio received the Kant World Citizen Award from the Kant Foundation in Germany. The award, given every two years to persons who are acknowledged human rights defenders, is the second international recognition given to the bishop in recognition of his work against the redirecting of the Sao Francisco River. Cappio conceded the following interview with Brasil de Fato:
Brasil de Fato (BF): You came to Germany to receive the World Citizen Award. Last year, you were given an award from an organization based in Belgium. Do you believe that it is possible to make the transposition of the Sao Francisco an international campaign?
Dom Luiz Flavio Cappio (DC): Since the time we did the two fasts, this campaign already became known throughout the world. We have received tremendous solidarity from many countries. These awards are evidence of this. Pax Christi, which is present in 54 countries, and the Kant Foundation here in Germany, have themselves taken up this cause in defense of the poorest people of the Brazilian Northeast.
BF: A confrere of yours here in Germany said that your two fasts had at least two practical results: first, the fasts stripped off the mask of a so-called popular government when a fork in the road was placed before the government and they opted for the other path; and second, the fasts made the CNBB (Conference of Brazilian Bishops) return to their agenda of a preferential option for the poor. What else do you see as effects of the fasts?
DC: Yes, besides these two aspects, I see a growing consciousness of the river folk, of the Brazilian nation, and of the world regarding the problem which was once so rarely discussed. Another great victory was the unification of all of those who struggled for this cause. Suddenly we saw indigenous, people from quilombos, academics, politicians all together, aligning themselves with this spirit of struggle, of the churches, of the movements.
BF: Everything seems to indicate that President Lula will not be able to declare by the end of his presidency that he completed the transposition. Do you really believe that he will arrive at the end of his presidency without the work being completed?
DC: I don't believe this project will be completed. No way do I believe it. I always compare the transposition project to a computer full of viruses. When you have an infected computer, eventually it comes to a moment when it just stops. This project is so full of irregularities that suddenly it is going to freeze up. There is no way it can move forward. I don't believe it will reach the end. And it won't satisfy Lula's vanity.
BF: Do you still expect something from the Lula government?
DC: Well, I can't say that I hope for anything. I can say that I did hope, I used to hope. For this reason I struggled, I sweated so that the government would return to the best interests of the people. And suddenly, we realized that the Lula government became hostage of the rich, of big transnational projects. I was disappointed. Today, I don't hope for anything more from the government, and I don't see a time of change in the government. I wish it to be better.
BF: Gandhi did nine fasts. Have you completely ruled out the possibility of having one more fast?
DC: I have not the slightest pretense of comparing myself to Gandhi. But I think the fast has already achieved its objective. It has already given a shout, and those who should hear have already heard. I think the message has been sent.
Source: Brasil de Fato, May 18, 2009
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