|
The municipality of Lucas do Rio Verde, the second largest producer of grains in Brazil, suffered an environmental disaster within its city limits.
Houses, fruit trees, ornamental and medicinal plants, and residents themselves were exposed to the effects of an illegal application of pesticide spray. According to the association of small producers, local syndicates, and experts, the toxic spray was a desiccating herbicide used to speed up the soybean harvest, the crop that has reaped profits for the region's big farmers. The toxic substance, which was spread illicitly by a single-engine plane at the beginning of March, is widely used in soybean monoculture. As immediate effects, the product can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and headaches. Over the long term it can cause cancer. The victims included dozens of small domestic gardens, fruit trees, ornamental plants, the Medicinal Plant Garden, which is linked to the Father Peter Foundation, and even some residents, who complained of diarrhea, vomiting, and itching. Around a week after the accident, two specialists arrived in the municipality to assess the impact of the environmental disaster: Wanderley Antônio Pignati, a master of public health at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT) and James Cabral, an agronomist with the Federation of Social and Educational Assistance Organizations (FASE). Together they investigated the contamination and drafted a warning which was sent to various municipal, state, and federal health and sanitary surveillance agencies. The victims of the spraying include small producers who live on the outskirts of town. Ivo Casonato, a small farmer who lost his entire fruit and vegetable crop, said that he witnessed the moment when the plane buzzed his property. "The sky was overcast. On the horizon a curtain of water could be seen. On the other side of the Rio Verde, less than 500 meters away, a plane was spraying pesticides on my neighbor's soybean plantations," he recounts. Lindonésia Andrade, a biologist who is in charge of the Medicinal Garden, said that the toxic effects appeared very quickly. The day after the spraying [March 2], the damage was visible throughout the city. "Leaves looked like crushed and burned paper, while others turned full of holes, and necrosis [rot] began to set in around the holes. On the fourth day the leaves entered total necrosis and started to fall," she recalls. After the accident, the Public Defense Ministry instituted an administrative proceeding to investigate the facts. At the request of the public prosecutor's office, the Lucas do Rio Verde Civil Police precinct opened a civil and criminal inquiry. Up to now, however, the forensic exams to identify the material evidence of the crime have not yet been performed. Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
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.
I feel shame for your honor in telling lies like this. You better try starting speaking and writing in Cuban Spanish.
You just make no sense at all!