Call # 260 May 2003

In President Lula’s Brazil the federal state is clearly committed to defending the poor. The new president has just announced strong concrete measures against forced labour, especially in Pará, the state most affected by this plague. But Brazil is a federal state and the Labour Party does not have all the keys to power. The promised land reform will have difficulty getting through, and the people behind the murders of peasant leaders still don’t pay for their crimes. Will the trial of the fazendeiros (the wealthy landowners) who ordered the murder of João Canuto in 1985 be a turning point? The outcome of the 23 May 2003 trial will answer that question.

João Canuto was president of the Union of Rural Workers of Rio Maria and a candidate in the 1982 municipal elections. His fighting spirit worried wealthy landowners. After receiving several death threats he asked for police protection - in vain. At noon on 18 December 1985 João Canuto was shot dead in the street.

On 22 April 1990 three of João’s sons were kidnapped by individuals claiming to be police officers. José (28) and Paulo (20) were found dead. Despite serious injuries Orlando (23) managed to escape.

On 2 February 1991 Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, who had taken over the presidency of the Union after João Canuto’s death, was also murdered by hired killers.

On 4 March 1991, one month after Expedito’s death, his successor Carlos Cabral narrowly escaped an attempt on his life.

Land reform and violence

These murders are related to the large numbers of particularly violent conflicts over land in the south of the state of Pará. The violence stems from Brazil’s land structure: 10% of the landowners own 80% of the farmland. Most of the big farms are under-exploited while poor peasants don’t have enough to live.

Tensions worsened from 1985 when the federal government wanted to introduce land reform. A percentage of unproductive land was to be expropriated and redistributed. The wealthy landowners saw red. They formed the Rural Democratic Union to defend their interests in Brasilia, and the land reform got bogged down. At the same time a real war developed in the rural areas. The fazendeiros hired henchmen to terrorize the peasants, resulting in an escalation of kidnapping, illegal confinement, torture, rape and murder.

In Rio Maria(1) and the state of Pará a legal battle was launched, spearheaded by the Pastoral Land Commission and the French Dominican priest Henri Burin des Roziers(2) - for the culprits were identified. In 1994 the henchmen who had committed the murders and assaults all appeared in court. Some received heavy sentences but the people who ordered these crimes were not charged; they scoff at anyone who demands that justice be done. Only one of them, the rural landowner Jerônimo Alves de Amorim, was tried and sentenced on 6 June 2000 to nineteen and a half years in jail for ordering the murder of trade unionist Expedito Ribeiro de Souza. Yet, for medical reasons, he is serving his sentence under house arrest, in his luxurious home in full comfort.

Legal guerrillas

In the case of the murder of João Canuto, the trial of two of the people behind the murder(3), also wealthy landowners, is scheduled for 22 and 23 May 2003 in Belem, the capital of Pará.

The police inquiry into this crime lasted eight years, until 1993. Thereafter the state prosecutor took three years to lay charges. Finally, the judge started to investigate the case in 1997, only when the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States threatened to condemn the Brazilian government for excessive slowness in the investigation and case - something it finally did, in 1999.

Owing to pressure from civil society locally, nationally and internationally, and to the determination of the Rio Maria Committee presided by Luzia Canuto, João Canuto’s daughter, the trial has been scheduled. Despite threats and persecution, this committee has overcome many obstacles to the course of justice.

From 1980 until today, in southern Pará, close to 400 rural workers have been murdered by order of local landowners. It was in the same state that 19 landless peasants were murdered and 64 injured during a demonstration on 17 April 1996 in Carajas. In this affair, only two officers, of the 154 military policemen responsible for the massacre, were sentenced. Although that was in 2001, they are still not behind bars(4). It is therefore essential that this highly symbolic trial of the men responsible for the murder of João Canuto take place under the eyes of all those who are attached to justice and to peasants’ rights in Brazil.

(1) In the south of the state of Pará, conflict has always been more frequent and more intense than elsewhere, probably because peasant trade unions are stronger and more active there.

(2) See the book Frère Henri Burin des Roziers, by Bernadette Toreto, Editions du Cerf

(3) Adilson Carvalho Laranjeira, former mayor of Rio Maria, and Vantuir Gonçalvez de Paula

(4) Brazil: soldiers still unpunished / Call 237 of 4 July 2001

The Rio Maria committee

The case of Rio Maria is exemplary. Peasant unionists, rural lawyers and the catholic church work hand in hand. The action of the Committee is recognized at international level. On 10 December 1998 in Paris, João Canuto’s daughter Luzia Canuto, who is currently president of the Committee, received the Human Rights Award of the Republic of France. Réseau-Solidarité is part of this vast support movement and regularly relays calls from Rio Maria. It has put out 14 calls since 1991 , of which the most recent were:

  Pour que justice soit faite (So that justice can be done) (11/1991)

  Entre justice et peur (Between justice and fear) (06/1993)

  Le Comité en ligne de mire (The Committee in the firing line) (04/1998)

  Affaire Canuto, procès bloqué (The Canuto Affair, stalemate)(03/1999)

  Juger et appliquer les peines (Judging and applying sentences) (09/1999)

  Policiers tortionnaires (Torturers in the police) (09/2000)

  Avocats menacés (Lawyers threatened) (03/2001)

A book

Terres violentes du Brésil - Chronique de Rio Maria

By Ricardo Rezende (Karthala Ed.)

A website

www.riomaria.org

Protest letter in Portuguese:

Exma. Sra.

Des. Maria de Nazareth Brabo de Souza

Presidente do Tribunal de Justiça do Pará

Cidade Velha

Largo de São João, s/n

66015-260 Belém PA

BRESIL

Senhora Presidente,

Fomos informados que vai se realizar no Tribunal de Justiça de Belém, em 22 e 23 de maio de 2003, o julgamento por Tribunal de Júri Popular, de dois acusados de serem os mandantes do assassinato de João Canuto de Oliveira, primeiro presidente do Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Rio Maria, sul do Pará, assassinado em 18.12.85.

Sabemos todos os obstáculos que encontrou o andamento do processo durante dezoito anos.

Sabemos que, depois de João Canuto, foram assassinados em 1990, também por questão de terra, dois de seus filhos, ferido um terceiro e assassinado em 1991 seu sucessor como presidente do sindicato, Expedito Ribeiro de Souza.

Conhecemos a tragédia do massacre de Eldorado dos Carajás, praticamente impune até a presente data.

Por isso acompanharemos com toda atenção o julgamento histórico dos acusados de serem os mandantes do assassinato de João Canuto, em 22 e 23 de maio em Belém.

Atenciosamente

Translation

Your Excellency,

I have been informed that on 22 and 23 May 2003 the two persons accused of being behind the murder of João Canuto de Oliveira, founding president of the Union of Rural Workers of Rio Maria in the south of Pará, will be tried in the Belém court of justice.

I am aware of the many obstacles that delayed the legal proceedings for 18 years. I also know that after João Canuto, two of his sons were murdered and a third injured in 1990. His successor as president of the Union, Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, suffered the same fate in 1991.

I know about the tragedy of the Eldorado dos Carajás massacre, still virtually unpunished.

That is why my full attention is focused on the historical judgement in this case against the two persons accused of having ordered the murder of João Canuto.

Yours faithfully,