🚀 go-pugleaf

Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------
## author     : wnu@igc.apc.org
## date       : 07.12.97
---------------------------------------------------------------------

          WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
             ISSUE #410, DECEMBER 7, 1997
  NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post
any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly
News Update on the Americas," and include our full contact
information so that people will know how to find us. Send us
a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted.
We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at
the street address above or via e-mail to <wnu@igc.apc.org>

PRISON REBELLIONS & BREAKOUTS IN BRAZIL

Inmates at the Pinheiros jail in the Brazilian state of Sao
Paulo seized seven hostages on Dec. 6 after a botched escape
attempt. Judge Francisco Jose Galvao Bruno, who was
negotiating for the release of the hostages, told the
Associated Press the uprising began after prisoners, who are
demanding to be transferred to other prisons, overpowered
their jailers. About 100 police surrounded the jail after
the prisoners--armed with guns, sticks and stones--destroyed
the roof and threatened to blow up prison walls with butane
gas. The inmates later released two of the hostages.

Pinheiros now holds 492 prisoners though it has an official
capacity of 300. Sao Paulo often experiences prison
rebellions due to extreme overcrowding and poor food and
medical care. Also, many people wait in prison for years
before their cases come to trial. [Associated Press 12/6/97]

On Oct. 29, 90 prisoners rebelled and controlled Lorena
prison, also in Sao Paulo, for 11 hours, demanding transfer
to less crowded prisons; Lorena is designed to hold 32
prisoners. Early that same day, 65 prisoners escaped from
the state prison in Piracicaba, Sao Paulo state, by digging
a 12-meter tunnel; 22 of them were quickly recaptured. On
Nov. 2, 58 adolescents escaped from the young offenders
prison (FEBEM) in Tatuape, in the city of Sao Paulo; 20 were
recaptured, but on Nov. 4 another 25 fled. On Nov. 5, in the
Imigrantes FEBEM in the southern region of Sao Paulo city,
150 young prisoners staged a rebellion and mass escape.
Overcrowding was the motive for the initial rebellion: 450
youths were being held in an area designed to hold 180.
Almost 100 of the escapees were quickly recaptured. [News
from Brazil from Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz (SEJUP)
#292, 11/6/97] According to James Cavallaro, the Brazil
director of Human Rights Watch/Americas, "The Brazilian
prison system is a time bomb. The absolute lack of even the
most minimum conditions [is] so glaring that it's a miracle
that there aren't more rebellions." [AP 12/6/97]

UNEMPLOYED PROTEST IN BRAZIL; POLICE INVADE SHANTYTOWN

About 4,000 demonstrators turned out in Sao Paulo, Brazil,
on Dec. 5, to protest the high level of unemployment in the
country. The rally, organized by the Only Workers Central
(CUT), the Popular Movements Central (CMP), and leftist
parties, was addressed by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,
probable 1998 presidential candidate of the Brazilian
Workers Party (PT). Lula admitted that the turnout was
smaller than expected, and said that so few people
attended--out of 2 million unemployed in the city--because
unemployed people are ashamed to leave their houses. But he
defended the unemployed encampments which are currently
going on in front of Brazil's national palace, state
government buildings, mayor's offices, and business centers,
saying that these protests are a way to get the unemployed
out of their houses and force the governors and
businesspeople to find solutions for the country's
increasing unemployment. The protest kicked off a Popular
Conference Against Neoliberalism organized by the CUT and
the CMP. [Folha de Sao Paulo 12/6/97]

Six hundred civil and militarized police (MP) descended on
the Heliopolis favela (shantytown)--which with 80,000
inhabitants is the largest in the city of Sao
Paulo--ostensibly to fight common crime. This is the first
time police in Sao Paulo have occupied a favela; the two
police departments said the joint occupation would last at
least 15 days. Lt. Col. Cesar Melo, interim commander of the
MP's Shock Commando, said the occupation was prompted by a
shootout on Nov. 29 that left two MPs injured; he added,
"The objective is to bring back calm to the workers who live
in the favela. Narcotrafficker activity is very intense,
with attacks, protection rackets, and the killing of
innocent people. The police need to give the favela back to
the community." In the first hours of the operation, police
reported finding a network of tunnels criminals had used to
escape police pursuit. [FSP 12/6/97]

BRAZILIAN LANDLESS PROTEST; RURAL VIOLENCE INCREASING

Representatives of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers
(MST) held a protest on Dec. 2 in front of the Agrarian
Reform Ministry in Brasilia. The protesters were demanding
more resources to carry out the country's agrarian reform.
[El Diario-La Prensa 12/3/97]

According to the Oct. 17 newsletter of the Pastoral Land
Commission (CPT), a new wave of rural violence has begun
since Justice Minister Iris Resende ordered state security
chiefs to enforce expulsion orders in areas occupied by
landless rural workers. The minister directed the
secretaries to seek the assistance of ranchers if necessary.
The CPT stated: "This combination of gunmen and police is
present in the acts of violence recently practiced against
rural workers."

Among the recent acts of violence: 2,200 landless families
occupying the Santo Antonio ranch in the municipality of
Itaquirai in Mato Grosso do Sul were surrounded by armed
men, one of whom admitted he was part of a group hired by
the rancher which also included police agents. In the same
state, a recently founded ranchers' organization known as
the National Association of Producers held a cattle auction
which raised approximately $225,000 to be used "for the
protection of ranches." In Maranhao state on Oct. 8, rancher
Gilson dos Reis assassinated rural worker Francisco de
Conceicao on the Correguinho ranch in the municipality of
Acailandia. Another rural worker, Francisco de Assis
Pereira, was wounded and has since disappeared. In Paraiba
on Oct. 9, 450 families who have lived for more than 50
years on the Santa Helena ranch in the municipalities of
Sape and Cruz do Espirito Santo were attacked by armed
police employed by local ranchers. On Oct. 14, on the Novo
Horizonte ranch, Mucurici municipality, state of Espirito
Santo, three landless were seriously injured when they were
attacked by ranchers and armed paramilitaries. Landless
worker Saturnino Ribeiro dos Santos died as a result of
blows to the head. The ranchers also burned the area where
the landless were camped. [News from Brazil supplied by
Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz (SEJUP) #291, 10/24/97]