The Struggle for Land in Brazil: Rural Violence Continues
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THE STRUGGLE FOR LAND IN BRAZIL Rural Violence Continues An Americas Watch Report Human Rights Watch New York ÚÚÚ Washington ÚÚÚ Los Angeles ÚÚÚ London Copyright 8 May 1992 by Human Rights Watch. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-72220 ISBN: 1-56432-070-7 Cover design by Deborah Thomas. Americas Watch was established in 1981 to monitor and promote observance of internationally recognized human rights. Americas Watch is a division of Human Rights Watch. The chair of Americas Watch is Peter D. Bell; Stephen L. Kass and Marina Pinto Kaufman are vice chairs; Juan E. Méndez is the executive director; Cynthia Arnson and Anne Manuel are associate directors; David Holiday is the director of our San Salvador office; Patricia Pittman is our representative in Buenos Aires; Mary Jane Camejo is a research associate; Vanessa Jimenez, Clifford C. Rohde and Ben Penglase are associates. Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch is composed of Africa Watch, Americas Watch, Asia Watch, Helsinki Watch, Middle East Watch and the Fund for Free Expression. The executive committee comprises Robert L. Bernstein, chair; Adrian W. DeWind, vice chair; Roland Algrant, Lisa Anderson, Peter D. Bell, Alice L. Brown, William Carmichael, Dorothy Cullman, Irene Diamond, Jonathan Fanton, Jack Greenberg, Alice H. Henkin, Stephen L. Kass, Marina Pinto Kaufman, Jeri Laber, Aryeh Neier, Bruce Rabb, Harriet Rabb, Kenneth Roth, Orville Schell, Gary G. Sick and Robert Wedgeworth. The staff includes Aryeh Neier, executive director, Kenneth Roth, deputy director; Holly J. Burkhalter, Washington director; Ellen L. Lutz, California director; Susan Osnos, press director; Jemera Rone, counsel; Joanna Weschler, Prison Project Director; Dorothy Q. Thomas, Women's Rights Project Director; and Allyson Collins, research associate. Executive Directors Africa Watch Americas Watch Asia Watch Rakiya Omaar Juan E. Méndez Sidney Jones Helsinki Watch Middle East Watch Fund for Free Expression Jeri Laber Andrew Whitley Gara LaMarche Human Rights Watch offices 485 Fifth Avenue 1522 K Street, NW, No. 910 New York, NY 10017-6104 Washington, DC 20005-1202 TEL: 212-972-8400 TEL: 202-371-6592 FAX: 212-972-0905 FAX: 202-371-0124 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 10951 West Pico Blvd, No. 203 90 Borough High Street Los Angeles, CA 90064 London SEI ILL, United Kingdom TEL: 310-475-3070 TEL: 71-378-8008 FAX: 310-475-5613 FAX: 71-378-8029 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Please forward publications requests to our New York office. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF FINDINGS...................... p. 1 Human Rights and the Environment in Brazil.................................... 2 Impunity: Denial of Human Rights....................................................... 4 2. BACKGROUND: THE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND AGRARIAN REFORM................................................................... 13 Poor Quality Investigators and Impunity.......................................... 13 Lack of Federal or State Programs to Curb Rural Violence ............ 14 Uneven Enforcement of the Law and Bias of Law Enforcement Officials Against Rural Activists .................................................. 17 Agrarian Reform and the Causes of Rural Violence ........................ 19 3. PARÁ ........................................................................................................... 26 Judicial and Police Investigations into Cases of Assassinations in the South of Pará ............................................. 26 Expedito Ribeiro de Souza............................................................. 28 Carlos Cabral Pereira...................................................................... 30 Paulo and José Canuto ................................................................... 31 Braz Antônio de Oliveira and Ronan Rafael Ventura .............. 34 João Canuto de Oliveira................................................................. 34 Belchior Martins Costa ................................................................... 35 Official Hostility to the Victims and The Activists.................... 35 The Mutran Family of Marabá: A Notorious Case of Impunity Investigated Only by the CPI............................. 36 Threats, Police Protection, and the Case of Father Ricardo Rezende ................................................................. 41 Police Violence in Land Conflicts ....................................................... 42 Female Bystander Seriously Wounded in Arrest Attempt at Fazenda Nazaré..................................................................... 45 Farmers Living Next to Occupied Area Illegally Arrested on Fazenda Mata Azul, Xinguara.......................... 48 4. FORCED LABOR....................................................................................... 52 The Legal Framework............................................................................ 53 The Continued Practice.......................................................................... 55 Forced Labor Cases in the South of Pará............................................ 57 Fazendas Santo Antônio do Indaiá and Santana do Indaiá, Ourilândia do Norte, Pará ....................................................... 58 Fazenda Big Valley, Xinguara, Pará............................................. 67 Fazenda Padre Cícero, Curionópolis, Pará................................. 70 Fazenda Santa Inês, Curionópolis, Pará...................................... 71 Fazenda Forquilha, Redenção, Pará............................................. 72 Fazenda Arizona, Redenção, Pará................................................ 73 5. MARANHÃO ............................................................................................ 74 Pistoleiro Violence Against Settlers in Bom Jesus, Limoeira da Mata ............................................................................ 75 Threats against Union Activist Francisca Antônia Sales and Killing of Francisco de Assis Ferreira .......................................... 78 6. PARANÁ..................................................................................................... 82 The Governor's Decision to Hold off use of Military Police in Evictions and the Landlords' Decision to Arm Themselves.... 83 Pistoleiros Wound Two Children in Pinhão Area............................ 87 Loggers Harass Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries and Illegally Cut Trees ........................................................................... 91 7. MATO GROSSO DO SUL........................................................................ 94 Migrant Labor Used on Sugar/Alcohol Complexes........................ 94 The Killing of a Striker by Military Police and Private Guards at Cachoeira Distillery........................................ 97 ABBREVIATIONS CIMI Conselho Indigenista Missionario (Council for the Indigenous Missions) CNBB Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) CPT Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Land Commission) CPI Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito da Violência no Campo (Congressional Inquiry Committee on Rural Violence) CUT Central Única dos Trabalhadores (Sole Workers' Central) DOPS Divisão de Ordem Política e Social (Division of Order and Social Policy) DRT Delegacia Regional do Trabalho (Regional Labor Delegation) IBAMA Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente (Brazilian Environmental Institute) IFPAAW International Federation of Plantation, Agricultural and Allied Workers ILO International Labor Organization INCRA Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) INSS Instituto Nacional de Segurança Social (National Institute of Social Security) ITCF Instituto de Terras, Cartografia e Florestas (Institute of Lands, Cartography and Forests) MST Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) PDC Partido Democrático Cristão (Christian Democratic Party) PDS Partido Democrático Social (Social Democracy Party) PMDB Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement) PST Partido Socialista do Trabalho (Social Labor Party) PT Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers Party) SPM Serviço Pastoral do Migrante (Pastoral Service for Migrants) UDR União Democrática Ruralista (Democratic Rural Union) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report was written by Jemera Rone, Counsel for Human Rights Watch. It was edited by Cynthia Arnson, Associate Director of Americas Watch, and Robert Kimzey, Editor of Human Rights Watch Books. Americas Watch Associate Ben Penglase made an invaluable contribution of additional research. Americas Watch is especially grateful to the Pastoral Land Commission of Brazil for its support in setting up interviews with human rights monitors and witnesses and for facilitating the flow of information to us about human rights conditions in rural Brazil. We would also like to extend our thanks to the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Movement of the Landless Rural Workers) and to the many victims of human rights abuses in Brazil who helped us to understand events there but must remain anonymous. 1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF FINDINGS The Struggle for Land in Brazil: Rural Violence Continues is an update of a previous Americas Watch report on the same subject published in February 1991.1 Both reports focus on the chronic problem of impunity in Brazil in the context