A disturbing picture emerges
from a report that traces human rights violations in Brazil during the first
nine months of Lula's presidency. Published by the Rede Social de Justiça
e Direitos Humanos (Social Network of Justice and Human Rights) in conjunction
with Global Exchange, the 2003 report concluded that the poor and excluded
are the principal victims of the government's economic guidelines, which continue
in the same direction as the programs implemented in the last two decades.
That is, they prioritize speculative capital at the expense of productive
investments in response to International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands.
The document, one of the
few to report on human rights in Brazil since 2000, is the product of the
work of 25 organizations, including the Land Ministry Committee (Comissão
Pastoral da Terra or CPT), the Movement of Landless Workers (Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST), the Missionary Council for the Indigenous
(Conselho Indigenista Missionário, or Cimi), the Women's March and
the Southern Jubilee Campaign.
Maria Luisa Mendonça,
one of the directors of the Social Network, said that while there is no real
change in economic direction, "which is what those who voted for Lula
expected," the human rights situation will not change. "Compensatory
programs will not be sufficient to solve the enormous challenges that exist
with respect to human rights," she says.
According to the economist
Sandra Quintela, between January and August of 2003, the expenditures for
interest on the debt reached 102.4 billion reais (about US$ 34 billion), 68
percent more than the same period in the year before. These expenditures are
the equivalent of three times the federal government's budget for health,
334 times the budget for housing and 10.2 percent of the gross domestic product,
or about 30 percent of the government's tax income, including all three levels:
municipal, state and federal.
Conclusions
Indigenous: The
Indigenous Situation Data from the Missionary Council for the Indigenous (Cimi)
show that in 2003 the number of murders of indigenous leaders exceeded the
records for the last ten years. There were 22 deaths between January and October.
The report criticizes the government's lack of political will to ratify legally
the indigenous lands and to complete the process of determining their exact
boundaries—66.73 percent of the indigenous communities are still awaiting
this determination. Furthermore, the indigenous peoples' representatives are
waiting for the President to revoke the former president's decree that permits
the installation of military bases in their lands.
Crimes of Large Land
Owners: These numbers also are reaching record heights. By November the
Land Ministry Committee registered the assassination of 61 rural workers.
Of these crimes, 35 occurred in the state of Pará, in Brazil's Northeast.
In 2001, the total number was 29 and in 2002, 43. Impunity is one of the principal
problems of the violence.
Between 1985 and 2002,
there were 1,280 assassinations of rural workers. Of this total, only 121
received sentences. The criminalization of social movements, in addition to
other forms of repression like arbitrarily imprisoning rural workers, especially
in the Pontal do Paranapanema, in western São Paulo state, are also
highlighted by the document.
Slavery: By the
middle of October, 7,623 enslaved workers had been freed, mainly in the states
of Pará, Mato Grosso, Tocantins and Maranhão, according to the
CPT. According to the UN's International Labor Organization, there are about
40 thousand slaves in Brazil. One of the main actions that President Lula
took was a project for the eradication of slave labor that includes the confiscation
of land, the increase in fines and the refusal of credit for violators. However,
many of these measures have never been implemented.
Unemployment: In
August of 2003, according to data of Dieese (Departamento Intersindical de
Estatística e Estudos Econômicos—Inter-Union Department
for Statistics and Economic Studies), the rate of unemployment in São
Paulo was 23.6 percent for women and 16.5 percent for men. Since the beginning
of the year, according to data of the Non Governmental Organization Sempre
Viva Organização Feminina (Always Alive Female Organization),
nearly 300,000 women left the workplace.
Housing: The Brazilian
housing deficit is more than six million units. In the city of São
Paulo, the number of people who live in favelas (shantytowns) grew
from 1,200,000 in 1990 to nearly 2 million in 2000. Data from the Metropolitan
Research Center (Centro de Estudos da Metrópole) reveal that every
eight days the city acquires a new favela. From 1991 to 2000, 464 favelas
were created and an average of 74 people per day became occupants of a shantytown.
Education: The
report shows that 42 million Brazilians older than ten, 31.4 percent of the
population, are functional illiterates. According to Sérgio Haddad,
Executive Secretary of Ação Educativa (Action Education), nearly
50 million people older than 14—nearly 34 percent of the population in
this age-group—failed to complete the fourth grade.
Urban Violence:
In urban centers the low-income communities suffer from police violence and
from extermination groups. Between January and May, 2003, the Military Police—as
opposed, for example, to the investigative police who also maintain the jails—killed
435 people—an average of almost 3 killings per day. These data reveal
an increase of 51 percent in relation to the same period the year before.
This article was
published originally in Portuguese by Brazil de Fato. You can contact
the author writing to redacao@brasildefato.com.br
