A Brazilian report on human rights shows that the Lula
administration, despite its promises to the contrary, has kept
the same old policies towards the disadvantaged. Brazil continues
to follow orders from the International Monetary Fund and
to favor speculative capital over productive investment.

Tatiana Merlino

 

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