Brazzil
News
December 2002

RAPIDINHAS

Crime 
Nightmare's End 

Carandiru is no more. Carandiru became synonymous with unbridled state human right abuse, after 1992, when 111 inmates of that São Paulo prison were massacred by the military police that were called to quell a riot. Ten years later, there were music, clapping, and white balloons while the last prisoner left the place.

During its 46-year existence the Casa de Detenção (Detention House) Carandiru housed 170,000 men. Open on September 11, 1956, by governor Jânio Quadros, who would be become Brazil's president in 1961, the penitentiary was designed to accommodate 3250 alleged criminals who were still waiting for final judgment. During the '80s, however, it became grossly overcrowded with 8000 all kinds of prisoners at a time—even the most dangerous—and a population of 170,000 men over the years. In 2001, 100 prisoners escaped from Carandiru through a tunnel they built.

At the ceremony marking the closing of the prison, São Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin didn't shed any tears for the coming tear down of Latin America's largest jail: "It did not offer security, it was condemned on health grounds and there was no rehabilitation of inmates. The model was backwards."

Carandiru became again the center of world attention just last year when the leaders of a prison gang known as ComandoVermelho, using cell phones, led from there a massive 27-hour rebellion involving 29 prisons from the São Paulo jail system. The riot, which took place on a Sunday when inmates were being visited, involved 30,000 prisoners and 7,000 visitors—including many children—who were taken as hostages. There was no blood bath this time, but the authorities decided to heed the warning: the prison's situation was untenable.

Nagashi Furukawa, head of the State Prison Administration Department, recognized that his office had lost control over the penitentiary: "We are shutting down what can only be described as an inferno. It has been a breeding ground of lawlessness, organized crime groups and corruption where guards have no control over the inmates and where rehabilitation is all but impossible."

The prisoners were sent around the state to 11 new jails recently built at a cost of $40 million. State authorities intend to use the space left after the demolition of the old prison to build a youth park with recreational and educational facilities.
 

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Natives 
Indian Hopes 

Delegates from Cimi (Conselho Indigenista Missionary—Indianist Missionary Council), an organization sponsored by the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) met recently with the transition team of President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The meeting took place on November 12, in Brasília, where the head office of the transition team was set up. Cimi was represented by secretaries Egon Heck and Sebastião Moreira and by its legal advisor, Paulo Machado Guimarães.

The document highlights proposals for immediate actions to be taken by the Lula administration and underlines expectations with regard to the definition of a medium- and long-term policy, such as: completion of procedures for demarcating all indigenous lands; removal of invaders from all indigenous lands that have been encroached upon; adoption of programs specifically based on the reality of reemerged indigenous peoples and of "isolated / free" indigenous peoples; and the creation of a new model to be adopted by the Public Administration in relation to indigenous people, one that truly takes into account their social and cultural reality.

During the meeting, Márcio Meira and Gilney Viana, members of President-elect Lula´s transition team, said that they will do all within their power to bring the claims of the country's indigenous peoples to the attention of the new federal administration. "We are limited, we have not been sworn in yet and we have no authority. But we have the authority to prevent problems from growing," they said.

In addition to expressing joy and hope over the election of a Government that is truly committed to changes that the large majority of the Brazilian people and indigenous peoples have been yearning for for a long time, Cimi would like to express its desire to contribute toward furthering this historical democratic process by suggesting the adoption of some urgent actions to the new federal administration:

· The revoking of Decree n. 1,775/96, which introduced the adversary system in the process of demarcating indigenous lands and encouraged violence, invasions, and pressures of all kinds against the recognition of those lands; and the adoption, instead, of the demarcation procedure approved by indigenous peoples in their Assembly held in April 2001, which is included in the proposal for a new Statute of Indigenous People proposed to the Chamber of Representatives;

· The revoking of the recent Decree 4,412/02, which provides for the presence of the Armed Forces and of the Federal Police in indigenous lands. This decree is clearly unconstitutional, exposes indigenous peoples to the risk of becoming victims of serious violations of human rights, and hinders a positive dialogue on an important issue for the country, namely, the role of the Armed Forces;

· Guarantee of full possession, by indigenous communities, of lands traditionally occupied by them, as some of these lands have been involved in serious and protracted conflicts, such as the following ones: Raposa/Serra do Sol (state of Rondônia); Caramuru - Catarina Paraguay (state of Bahia); Pataxó of the Pascoal Mount region (state of Bahia); Cerro Marangatu (state of Mato Grosso do Sul); Guarani of the Araça'í (state of Santa Catarina); Xukuru (state of Pernambuco), Guajá (state of Maranhão) and Roosevelt (states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso);

· Actions to persuade the National Congress to approve the Statute of Indigenous Peoples in accordance with a proposal sent by indigenous people to the president of the Chamber of Representatives in April 2001, which was supported by over one million signatures;

· Appropriation, in the Budget of the Union, of sufficient funds to indemnify occupants of indigenous lands for improvements made therein in good faith, for health care, for education and self-sustainability, and for the demarcation and protection of indigenous lands and of the indigenous heritage;

· Immediate legal-administrative and judicial protection to indigenous communities where there are conflicts over the possession of indigenous lands.

"This is our initial contribution, because we believe that the Lula administration is in a good position to avoid what has been done by previous federal administrations, which failed to define a policy with concrete actions in relation to indigenous peoples from the outset and, in doing so, allowed acts of aggression, violence, and lack of respect for the rights of indigenous people to continue," stressed Egon Heck, Cimi's Executive Secretary.

This article was distributed by Sejup, which can be visited at  www.oneworld.net/sejup
 

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Landless
They Want Much More

On November 6, the MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra—Landless Rural Workers Movement ) made public the letter it addressed to President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, planned for delivery on the following day.

The MST's main demand is for the non-renewal of the Medidas Provisórias (Provisional Measures) signed by president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. For two years, these measures have suspended the formal process of expropriating the lands claimed and taken over by the movement. For the leaders of the MST, the measures are authoritarian and meant to prevent workers from using their main political instrument, i.e. occupying uncultivated land. "The occupation of unproductive land is legitimate and will be carried out in the upcoming year if and when necessary," asserted João Paulo Rodrigues, an MST coordinator.

THE LETTER:

"The Landless Workers Movement has turned to the Brazilian people and President Lula da Silva to speak of our country's situation and the struggle for agrarian reform. We are driven by the hope and confidence that another Brazil is possible, one in which women, men, children, the youth and elderly may live a dignified and fulfilling life.

1- Brazil has experienced eight years of a neoliberal economic model implemented by the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. This model has only increased people's suffering and brought severe hardship to those living in rural areas afflicted by ever-increasing poverty, inequality, mass exodus, and lack of work and land.

2- The people of Brazil have said `No' to this economic and agricultural model. Brazilians have voted massively for change. They have elected President Lula da Silva. It is a victory for the Brazilian people, a defeat for the elite and their program.

3- The MST has fought against this model. This is why we have been persecuted and affronted. We are paying a high price with massacres, prison terms, systematic lies and the utter disregard of seated families. We have been committed to every electoral campaign since 1989 for change to occur. Now we feel proud and victorious for having elected President Lula.

4- The large landed estate (latifúndio) and neoliberal model are the causes of hunger, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and lack of development in rural areas.

5- We are sure that it is possible to defeat the large landed estate by organizing the people and through the new government's political will. For us, the enemy is the large landed estate. And Lula's government will play a fundamental role to democratize land ownership in Brazil.

6- We need to build a new agricultural model that gives priority to the internal market, food production and income redistribution. To achieve this it is necessary to value family-based and cooperative-style agriculture, and make agro-business viable and decentralized. The State must take on its role in agriculture and ensure the right of farmers to produce their own seed and develop techniques that are appropriate to the environment and to food quality.

7- Public education has to be guaranteed to the entire rural population as a way of conquering dignity and development.

8- Our role as a social movement is to continue organizing people from the countryside, bringing them to awareness of their rights and mobilizing them to fight for change. We shall carry on the necessary autonomy from the State, but we shall contribute in every which way possible to a new government so as to bring about the agrarian reform we have dreamt of for so long.

9- We are taking this opportunity, this moment, to carry out the historical task of implementing real agrarian reform so as to democratize access to land and eliminate hunger, unemployment and social injustices.

10- We shout out to all workers and to Brazilian society at large to get organized and mobilized, and help us bring about agrarian reform. A more just and egalitarian Brazil is possible. The time has come."

Caruaru, in the Pernambucan drylands, November 7, 2002.

MST National Coordination (Coordenação Nacional do MST)

Translated by Norman Madarasz (normanmadarasz2@hotmail.com)
 

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