Last March 7, at the Auditorium of the Pontifical Catholic
University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), in the Brazilian
city of Porto Alegre, the Confederation of Agricultural
Workers of Brazil (CONTAG) and IUF’s Latin American
Secretariat launched the international campaign “Stop Rural
Violence. Attack the root of this evil.”
Simultaneously with the Second International Conference on
Agrarian Reform and Rural Development of FAO, held
throughout this week at said university’s Convention Center,
hundreds of rural workers from Brazil’s 27 states and from
around Latin America, joined “rural widows and orphans”
–among them Helenice Mendes, daughter of murdered rubber
tapper leader Chico Mendes– to participate in a lively
activity, charged with emotion and reflection, hope and
willingness to fight in a well-organized initiative.
In his
speech, Alberto Broch, Vice President and International
Relations Officer of CONTAG, said that rural violence “is an
embarrassment to us all, to the entire country,” and he
added that as long as there’s “even one act of violence,
once instance of slave labor” in Brazil, “CONTAG will
continue to fight against this scourge.”
For his part,
IUF Regional Secretary Gerardo Iglesias explained that the
international campaign focuses primarily on agrarian reform
and on combating the impunity of a violence that has become
institutionalized and is highly organized. Behind these
objectives is also the preservation of food security and
sovereignty –he said–, which are increasingly more
threatened by the concentration of land and by agribusiness.
According to Iglesias, the video that was filmed in the
state of Pará in late 2005, featuring the direct testimony
of several victims and relatives of murder victims, and of
people threatened to death, which was presented at this
event, “will be shown until December in some 50 countries
where there are IUF affiliates.”
The
significance of the event was further heightened by the
presence of two Government ministers: Marina Silva, Minister
of the Environment, and Miguel Rossetto, Minister of Rural
Development. Silva underlined the progress that has been
made in the region under Lula’s government, and admitted
that there is still a great deal to be done. She pointed out
that after 30 years of nothing being done at all, the
cadastral registration of the region has been resumed, and
in many cases unlawful appropriations of land have been
declared null. “In these last three years –she said– 15
million hectares were converted into ‘conservation units,’
and 9 million hectares have been turned over to indigenous
peoples.” The Minister also stressed that international
solidarity will be an instrumental element in helping to
change the currently prevailing situation in Amazonia.
Rossetto, for
his part, underlined the importance of the international
campaign launched by CONTAG and IUF, and announced “the
federal government’s full support and commitment to this
initiative.”
The
participation of representatives of rural organizations from
Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Spain and Uruguay gave a
clearly international character to the event. On the
following day, March 8, International Women’s Day,
participants joined other labor, social and women
organizations in a colorful, cheerful and combative
demonstration that marched through downtown Porto Alegre
raising awareness about the struggle against domestic
violence and the violence afflicting rural women.
Luiz Vicente
Facco, International Relations advisor of CONTAG, assessed
the event and the possible impact of the campaign, and
declared that “this time the difference will no doubt be
made by the pressure that organizations and governments of
other countries will exert by condemning these savage
practices, and also by the ongoing show of international
solidarity, which will keep the attention focused on this
programmed tragedy that affects our rural areas.”
Carlos
Amorín, from Porto Alegre
© Rel-UITA
March 20,
2006
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