Brazil

Systematic, institutionalized torture found in Brazilian ‘Old Rust’ prison

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Widespread injuries and scars among prisoners at the “Old Rust” penitentiary in Brazil were caused by punches, kicks, blows, collective beatings, prods with pitchforks, and institutionalized torture, according to a report by the Mato Grosso state’s internal affairs department that concluded prisoners were being subject to institutionalized routine bodily injury by prison officials.

There was virtually no external supervision of what was happening inside Osvaldo Florentino Leite Ferreira Penitentiary, which provides an environment of impunity and stimulates the cycle of endless torture, said the report.

Prisoners were tied to an iron bar and suspended by their ankles and wrists and left in that position until blood no longer circulated, making the body swell and breathing difficult, the report detailed. These acts were carried out by several prison guards and the prison’s director of discipline and detailed by a committee composed of judges, auxiliaries, and public defenders. It was based on a surprise visit that took place between December 14 and 16, 2020. The report and medical examinations were only finalized in late February.

These acts were carried out by several prison guards and the prison’s director of discipline and detailed by a committee composed of judges, auxiliaries, and public defenders. It was based on a surprise visit that took place between December 14 and 16, 2020. The report and medical examinations were only finalized in late February.

“It is important to mention that several prison system officials presented testimony before the magistrates, confirming the assaults on prisoners which, together with the footage of the testimonies, photos and examinations of the body of crime, indicate the occurrence of systemic torture in the unit,” said the report. “It was like an establishment policy, something institutionalized indeed.”

Severe overcrowding, lack of hygiene, water rationing, humidity, mold, lack of ventilation, vermin, pests, plus untreated yeast and skin infections contributed to an environment of disease and violence, the report also concluded.

After the inspection, the Secretary of State for Public Security removed 12 guards from the prison, including the director, the deputy director, the head of discipline and other agents accused of mistreatment. However, they have not lost their jobs, and they are working at other prisons, according to advocates for the prisoners.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Brazil lost 75k stores, 26k jobs in 2020

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SAO PAOLO – Despite a weak increase in sales of 1.2%, retail trade in Latin America’s largest economy suffered its biggest pullback since 2016 — when the country was in the midst of the worst recession in memory — according to data from the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism of Brazil. The figure reflects the net loss taking into account new store openings and new jobs versus closings and job losses.

Dividing the past year in two, however, the report noted a trend showing that losses in the first 6 months were of 62k stores and that the second half lost only 13k stores, fueling speculation that a recovery is under way, awaiting the figures for the first half of 2021.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Brazil will monitor forest threats with first nationally-developed satellite

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SAO PAOLO – Brazil’s new Earth observation satellite is the first one to be 100% conceptualized, designed, integrated, tested, and operated by Brazil.

Amazonia-1 was put into orbit from from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India at dawn Sunday after 13 years of development. It will sense, observe, and track deforestation in the Amazon region.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Bolsonaro says he wants to arm the population to make Brazil safer; critics say he wants armed supporters to keep him in power

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SAO PAOLO, Brazil – In one of the most violent countries on Earth, its president says the solution is more arms and he is relaxing the gun laws by decree: A mid-February executive order increases the number of guns Brazilians can legally acquire to 6 to be keep at home, but 30 if you are a hunter, and 60 if you are sports shooter.

However, critics say that these moves put human lives in danger and that the extreme right-wing president is creating a threat to democracy because the weapons could be used for more than just defending against crime or for recreation. Opposition Congressman Marcelo Freixo charged that Jair Bolsonaro wants his supporters armed so they can keep him in power if he loses the upcoming election.

Since Bolsonaro took office, the number of officially registered weapons has exploded: 450,000 pistols and rifles have been added since 2019, an increase of 65%. Brazilians now officially own 1.2m firearms, not a lot for a country of 211m, but the Insper Institute of Sao Paulo estimates that the number of illegal weapons may be as much as 15 times higher.

The right-wing populist president says guns are not only a civil right, but also the best way to fight crime and violence. He is on a campaign to arm Brazilian civil society, critics and supporters agree, but they differ on how they see his motives.

Bolsonaro is heavily supported by the National Rifle Association in Brazil, which has a growing and vocal chapter in the country.

By Milan Sime Martinic

‘Joujou’ is another name for hope in the Brazilian wetlands

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A male jaguar named Joujou has returned to his home sweet home in the wild.

In Brazil he has become a symbol of the efforts of environmentalists, volunteers and firefighters to protect and restore a much affected strip of the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland area, which was ravaged by the fires last year.

Little by little, vegetation returning to the Serra do Amolar, a chain of mountains considered an environmental treasure because of the large number of species it houses.

Before the fires, 62 jaguars had been monitored in the region. Today, researchers are unable to say how many have survived and how many have returned to their habitat, which was scorched in the worst sequence of fires in 14 years. Between January and September of 2020, 2.3 million acres have been on fire, an area which is two times as big as the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Joujou the catJoujou has become a symbol of hope because he was shown on national TV with his paws burned. Some Brazilians said they cried in front of the screen when they saw the big cat suffering so much. In November, two jaguars were rescued. They could barely move. One of them didn’t make it. Joujou was taken to a center for housing and treatment of wild animals in the city of Campo Grande, capital of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

After months of intensive care, this example of the Americas’ biggest feline has recovered entirely and was flown back to Pantanal. Joujou now has a tracking collar and will be monitored for a year. He reached the hospital weighing just a hundred pounds. He now weighs almost 180 pounds.

Many other animals – including anteaters, armadillos, snakes, alligators and other jaguars – did not survive the blaze. However, Joujou, beautiful and strong, has been returned home safe and sound.

By Jorge Valente

The priest who left no sharp stones

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SAO PAOLO, Brazil – One of the most iconic figures in the fight for the homeless in the city of São Paulo has been in the spotlight since the beginning of February.

Father Julio Lancelotti learned that the City Hall’s authorities had decided to cover the ground under a bridge with pointed stones, a move to prevent the homeless from sleeping underneath.

A reputed advocate of human rights, father Lancelotti had no second thoughts about the line of action he was about to take.

With a sledgehammer in hand, he took to the streets and positioned himself right below the bridge. And then attacked and destroyed furiously what he considered another serious breach of human rights in a city already plagued by many other violations.

On social media he later posted a picture showing the result of his action and wrote, “Outrage against oppression”.

São Paulo is believed to have more than 24,000 homeless living below the poverty line, according to a 2019 survey. But Human Rights Watch groups say this number skyrocketed during the pandemic.

City Hall authorities said that the decision to put the stones under the bridge was an “isolated action” and had already fired the employee who was in charge of the task.

Father Lancelotti, however, was skeptical about this take on things, and said another similar action had already been done, commenting, “It’s inhuman, looks like a concentration camp.”

By Jorge Valente

Brazilian rainforest land for sale on Facebook’s Marketplace

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Plots as large as 2000 acres are being sold on the hyperlocal Marketplace section of the platform.

The Bolsonaro administration has taken criticism for looking the other way on encroachment into protected areas and deforestation, and indigenous groups have told the BBC that it is unwilling to stop these sales. “A common strategy is to deforest the land and then plead with politicians to abolish its protected status, on the basis it no longer serves its original purpose,” said the BBC report.

Illegal deforestation for timber often clears the land for cattle grazing, increasing its value as much as three-fold, and the practice is creating a growing land rush investment opportunity with Marketplace as its platform.

Facebook, for its part, says that its policies require users to follow the law, and reportedly said it is “willing to work with authorities,” but that it would not take unilateral action to take down the ads.

By Milan Sime Martinic

UF researcher moves Brazil to rescue legacy of man who helped end slavery

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The tomb of Brazilian abolitionist Francisco José do Nascimento, known as Dragão do Mar — Sea Dragon — whose contribution to the end of slavery in Brazil is widely regarded, has been identified by U of Florida student Licinio Nunes de Miranda after being lost and forgotten for more than 100 years and is now marked with a new monument. Brazilian media report this has spurred a movement to remember and honor the Sea Dragon, and to teach the value of his impact.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Criticism by Bolsonaro triggers $12.6 billion drop in market value for Brazilian multinational Petrobras

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SAO PAULO, Brazil – After replacing the state-controlled oil company’s CEO with a retired general, the Brazilian president blasted its pricing policies and said they should be changed to lower gas and diesel prices, causing a 21% drop Monday in the company’s shares on the São Paulo Stock Exchange.

By Milan Sime Martinić

Attempt to secretly revise human rights program in Brazil – HRW

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Human Rights Watch has raised alarm about Brazil’s exclusion of civil society from discussions about changing the country’s human rights policies, suspecting a secret plan to undermine what has for decades been regarded as a critical achievement in the defense of human rights in Brazil.

“The Bolsonaro administration, which has promoted an anti-rights agenda, has announced it is planning to change the National Human Rights Program in absolute secret, and without the participation of anyone who disagrees with its policies,” said Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch.

By contrast, the last revision to the program under President Lula involved some 14,000 people in the discussions and a widely regarded transparent process. The National Human Rights Programs (PNDH) follow the guidelines of the 1993 Vienna Convention, and Brazil was one of the first countries to promote this formulation (PNDH-1, in 1996, PNDH-2, in 2002, and PNDH- 3, in 2009). PNDH establishes a benchmark to assess the effectiveness of government efforts to improve the human rights conditions in Brazil.

Since 2019, Bolsonaro has eliminated the government committee in charge of coordinating the implementation of the National Human Rights Program, now the group proposing new changes is made up solely of members of his administration.

The approach is an affront to the democratic rule of law, the Constitution, and the National Human Rights Programs built in Brazil, say some 211 Brazilian NGO stakeholders in calling for the immediate revocation of the administration’s new regulations that created the working group for the PNDH-3 review.

By Milan Sime Martinić

European public opinion puts pressure on Brazil to decrease deforestation of the Amazon

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SAO PAULO – Recently, London-based YouGov conducted the poll that surveyed people in several European countries and reported that only 12% of those interviewed supported moving forward with the pact if the current rate of Amazon deforestation continues.

Unfavorable European public opinion may, it is thought, threaten the loss of the EU-Mercosur commercial accord, worth around $19t total. Brazil deforests it’s land more than the other three Mercosur members — Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay — combined.

By Milan Sime Martinić

 

 

French bank will stop financing companies that exploit deforested land in the Amazon

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Amazon deforestation
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Continuing a trend of European businesses moving independently to protect the Amazon, France’s BNP Paribas announced it will no longer finance companies that buy cattle or soy produced on deforested or converted Amazon lands after 2008. The measure also applies to deforested lands in Brazil’s Cerrado region, a threatened tropical savanna eco-region covering 20% of Brazil that has lost half its land to agricultural clearing.

PNB said it will only finance those who adopt a Cerrado strategy of Zero Deforestation by 2025, promoting criticism from environmentalists that it is weak action that gives deforesters a 5-year free pass in an area they see spiraling into a collapse of its biodiversity.

The immediate move to fight Amazon deforestation, however, will also affect Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana, which hold parts of the Amazon forest along with Brazil. An area the size of the state of Maryland was lost to deforestation in 2020.

By Milan Sime Martinić