VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL
by Heidi Cerneka

Brazil is living in a situation of war, a Social War, according to United Nations special advisor Jean Ziegler. "It's as if France, Germany and Somalia were living in the same country!" Ziegler continued, "And while police are important for security, they are not the solution to the problems of hunger, lack of health care, lack of schools and lack of citizenship." In a country with such a striking disparity between rich and poor, Ziegler comments, "the temptation to steal is understandable when one has absolutely nothing." Despite the fact that one Brazilian authority called this declaration irresponsible and ridiculous, the facts are hard to dispute. According to UN guidelines, a country with over 25,000 assassinations per year is considered in a state of war, and last year, according to the Ministry of Justice, Brazil registered well over 40,000 assassinations.

In the metropolitan area of São Paulo, whose population is estimated between 17-20 million, residents are afraid to go out at night. The number of kidnappings has increased 400%. From 1985-1997, homicides have increased 76%, unemployment has risen 18.6% and the number of people living in precarious or totally inadequate housing (or the streets) has grown 50%.  Three neighborhood health posts in the city of São Paulo closed their doors last week after receiving anonymous phone calls threatening the clinics.  Even without the alarming number of assassinations, this data indicates at minimum, a social crisis, if not the "social war" that Ziegler describes.

The "Map of Inclusion/Exclusion" of the city of São Paulo, a comprehensive study collecting information from governmental and university sources addressing social inclusion and exclusion, violence, health, education, housing, children and adolescents, hunger work, unemployment and the informal economy, speaks to the epidemic of violence. "Violence is not only an effect, but also a cause of the increase in tension and inequality in the city. The population lives in constant fear, and the tension caused by the police only augments this fear."

Almost one-third of all residents in the city of São Paulo now believe that violence is the greatest problem in the country today. This public perception of violence has a strong psychological impact on the population.  Public space, in other words, is identified more and more with violence, danger and abandonment.

Exacerbating the dramatic increase in violence is a continued complete lack of confidence in public security and government officials. A recent study by the newspaper Folha of São Paulo revealed that 59% of the residents of this city of São Paulo have more fear than trust in the police and security forces.  Controlling violence and restoring a sense of public security is practically impossible when daily headlines show the narcotics police (DeNarc) commandeering the drug traffic in a part of the city known as "Crack-land" (so called for the quantity of crack cocaine that passes through this area) or the military police being indicted for protecting drug lords and "helping" identify potential victims to kidnap.

The governor himself publicly declared, "there are only 2 places for criminals- jail or the grave," and while the public security budget (which includes the police forces) has increased 107%, violence, if anything, has also increased. In the month of January, the police in São Paulo officially killed 84 people- as if the words of the governor freed them to shoot more indiscriminately.

Seeing as the budget continues to skyrocket, the violence only increases, one questions if anyone is thinking beyond traditional means. It is way past time to think creatively. Human beings have the capacity to split atoms, write operas, sculpt a "David," and yet, in the face of increasing violence, the only response is to build more jails. In business, when one sees that her/his product has a 30-40% success rate, one closes the factory. And yet, society not only accepts this rate from the prison industry and police forces, it offers more money to produce more of the same product.

Violence is neither a necessary evil nor an inevitable part of urban life.  However, as long as the principal solution is to pour more money into what already does not work, the system will continue to do no more than band-aid an already desperate situation. Alternatives to prison sentencing like probation and community service must be utilized, and with the money not spent on housing and controlling that inmate, budgets for daycare, education, health and job training can be increased. Literacy courses, secondary education and job skills training must be a part of every sentenced inmate's options for a chance at a different life after release.  Laws against torture, domestic violence and political impunity must be applied As a model of citizenship, the police forces, both military and civil, must be held accountable and corruption and violence within the police forces must be eradicated. Clearly, more training, more ongoing support and continuing education are a means to this end. Only then, will they earn the trust of the general population. Finally, making the education and formation of today's children a first priority will open the possibility of a different future for them... of a different future for all of society.

(Sources: Map and Report of Exclusion in São Paulo, Folha de São Paulo)
Heidi Cerneka works with female prisoners in the city of Sao Paulo.  Her article appears in News from Brazil, March 29, 2002 issue

Other News from Brazil

NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 466, March 29, 2002.

LANDLESS WORKERS OCCUPY LAND IN BURITIS, MINAS GERAIS

On Sat., March 23, 200 members of Landless Worker Movement (MST-Movimento Sem Terra) peasants occupied the Córrego da Ponte farm in Buritis, Minas Gerais. The farm is registered in the names of President Fernando Henrique´s sons. For the past two years, the Landless Workers Movement has presented evidence to show that much land in the Buritis region is unproductive. MST has continually negotiated for the release of this land with INCRA (federal government agrarian reform institute) and members of the Brazilian government. The government's response is to promise to resolve the issue. MST members have mobilized time and time again in the region, and after the press leaves, nothing happens. This March, MST negotiated again with Incra with no results. Thus, 80 families decided to occupy the land to call attention to the desperate plight and extreme poverty of the landless in the area.

The Federal Police, Army and Brazilian Air Force were called to the region as well as ombudsmen of the Ministry of Agrarian Development. At 11:00 PM on Saturday, the landless movement members decided to peacefully leave the farm as part of an accord received by Agrarian Development Minister, Raul Jungmann.

The National Agrarian Ministry judge, Gersino José da Silva and his assistant, Maria de Oliveira had assured MST that no one would be arrested.

However, as the group was leaving the farm on Sunday morning, 16 members of the landless group were arrested. Subsequently, da Silva and Oliveira offered their resignations from the Agrarian Ministry as a result of the accord being violated by the government. According to MST, these resignations reaffirm the fact that da Silva and Oliveira prefer to remain with the truth and with the landless workers rather than to go back on the word of the government. Minster Raul Jungmann stated that the 16 landless movement members will remain in jail in Brasília until their hearing and they will lose their right to land and be excluded from the agrarian reform program. MST has organized a 7 day protest march from Buritis to Brasilia (300 kilometers) to protest the imprisonment of the 16 members. They affirm the fact that occupying unproductive land to call attention to the landless problem in Brazil is not a crime and that the Brazilian people know that the poor distribution of land is a social problem that will not be solved by the police, army, or air force.

The Buritis landless workers are victims of the lack of agrarian reform of the Brazilian government. 920,000 family farms with less than 100 hectares have disappeared in these last few years. The budget for agrarian reform diminishes each year. Even workers of INCRA testify to the abandonment of agrarian reform in Brazil.

Source: Adital and MST website

LANDLESS WORKERS´ MOVEMENT

While 60% of Brasil's farmland lies idle, 25 million peasants struggle to survive unemployed or by working in temporary agricultural jobs . The Landless Workers' Movement (MST) is a response to these inequalities. In 1985, with the support of the Catholic Church, hundreds of landless rural Brasilians took over an unused plantation in the south of the country and successfully established a cooperative there. They gained title to the land in 1987. Today more than 250,000 families have won land titles to over 15 million acres after MST land takeovers.  In 1999 alone, 25,099 families occupied unproductive land. There are currently 71,472 families in encampments throughout Brazil awaiting government recognition.

The success of the MST lies in its ability to organize. Its members have not only managed to secure land, thereby guaranteeing food security for their families, but have come up with an alternative socio-economic development model that puts people before profits. This is transforming the face of Brasil's countryside and Brasilian politics at large.  These gains have not come without a cost, however. Violent clashes between the MST and police, as well as landowners, have become commonplace, claiming the lives of many peasants and their leaders. In the past 10 years, more than 1000 people have been killed as a result of land conflicts in Brasil. Prior to August 2000, only 65 of the suspected murders have been brought to trial.

Source: MST website