|
The performance of the Brazilian Judicial system in the agrarian conflicts does not stimulate rural violence, in the opinion of the President of the Brazilian Magistrates Association (AMB), Rodrigo Collaço.
He refutes the comments by the Brazilian Farm Worker Union (CONTAG) that the slowness of the system and lack of punishment are an invitation to violence. Contag is launching, this Tuesday, March 7, the international campaign "Enough Violence in the Countryside," that will focus mainly on putting some pressure over the judicial system. "The Judicial system has no means of preventing the violence caused by land disputes. It works with the consequences of the facts", stresses AMB President, as he adds that the current explosive situation is due to the fact that few people own most part of the land, and that the State is not following up on its land distribution policy. Collaço mentioned the case of Dorothy Stang, the American missionary murdered in Anapu, Northern state of Pará, in February of 2005. He believes this case is a symbol of the rural violence caused by the absence of the State, of a good police structure, and of regional environmental organisms. Another symbolic case of violence related to agrarian issues was the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás, also in Pará, in 1996, when 19 rural landless workers were murdered and all individuals accused were absolved. For Collaço, the courts have nothing else to do on this case, since it was a sentence given by popular jury. "I think it's important that we are indeed going through the trial process. We may or may not agree with the result. But in this case, the sentence was given by the society itself." According to the Land Pastoral Commission, 1,500 people, among rural workers and leaders, were murdered in the country, in the last 20 years. Of this total, 76 cases went through trial, and 82 people were condemned. Rodrigo Collaço said he will invite CONTAG for a meeting to discuss the accusations against AMB. According to Collaço, AMB is as worried with the rural situation in Brazil as Contag. He adds that the entity would like to join efforts with CONTAG to do everything possible to put an end to impunity. Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Why would it not be an incitation to violence.....knowing those who are the killers........have no risk of punishment ????
Without risk of long term jail.....applied as per existing laws...why would anyone large landowners stop !!!!
Your judges are only the civil servants of your minority of wealthy citizens.
And they obey to what is told to them not to what their job is supposed to do....with the laws !!!!!
A shame to dignity, justice and humanity !!!