Brazil President: Open Season on Eco-Crimes
8/20/98
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Brazil President: Open Season on Eco-Crimes
Source: SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justice e Paz)
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 20, 1998
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NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justice e
Paz).
Number 317, August 20, 1998.
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Visit our home page: http://www.oneworld.org/sejup/
Our principal topics this week are:
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
- Brazil President: Open Season on Eco-Crimes
LAND ISSUES:
- MST coordinator is imprisoned
- Report by CPT on violence and conflict over the land question
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
- Brazil President: Open Season on Eco-Crimes
Brazil Government Declares 10 Year Moratorium on Environmental Law
Enforcement
With a stroke of the pen, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso reversed Brazil's greatest environmental advance in the
1990's, the Environmental Crimes Act (Lei 9.605 de 12 de fevereiro
de 1998), declaring a 10 year moratorium on environmental law
enforcement.
Executive Order (Medida Provisoria) 1.170, signed August 7, 1998,
establishes that companies that violate environmental legislation
can sign a letter of commitment with an environmental agency,
promising to bring their operations into compliance and be exempted
from fines or other penalties for up to 5 years, renewable for another
5 years. Only six months after the Congress passed the Environmental
Crimes Act, giving Brazil's environmental agency, IBAMA,
statutory authority to enforce environmental law for the first time
since 1989, the federal government has given environmental lawbreakers
a ten year holiday. The legislation with which business has to comply
has largely been in force since the 1970s.
The opposition Worker's Party (PT) and the Green Party (PV), on
August 12, brought suit in the Supreme Court, charging that the order
is unconstitutional. They argue that the order in essence overturns
the Environmental Crimes Act, arbitrarily violating the separation of
powers established in the Constitution.
Executive order 1.710 retroactively allows lawbreakers in business by
March 30th to escape punishment by signing an agreement with the
environmental agency by December 31st .
This means that any company penalized under the Environmental Crimes
Act (which came into force 90 days after its publication) can now be
exempted for another 10 years.
Long-term observers of Brazilian politics note that, with companies
responsible for some 20% of Brazil's GDP operating without
environmental licenses, and 4,000 fines levied in Sao Paulo state
alone since the passage of the Environmental Crimes Act, the order
could represent a campaign fund raising bonanza for President Cardoso.
Cardoso is running for re-election in the October 3rd election.
Please fax or email President Ferando Henrique Cardoso urgently,
requesting that he revoke Executive Order 1.710 immediately.
Fax: 011-55-61-226-7566
Email - pr@planalto.gov.br
Source: Environmental Defense Fund August 13, 1998.
LAND ISSUES:
- MST coordinator is imprisoned
On the 19 of August around four o clock, the Civil Police of
Pernambuco were ordered by Judge Dr.Gilvan Macedo to arrest Jaime
Amorim, the coordinator of the Landless Movement (MST). Jaime Amorim
is supposed to have organized a group of landless people to occupy a
land estate in the district of Espirito Santo, near the city of Sao
Bento De Una between the 15 and 23 of April, 1998.
In fact two areas of the estate were occupied by landless people. On
April 17, the military police repossessed the land, tore down the
makeshift homes of the people and took their food and their clothes.
On April 20, 50 people went to the Headquarters of the Military Police
and requested the return of their possessions. They went to the court
house where they met with judge Gilvan Macedo, who in turn had 19 year
old Carlos Roberto Dos Anjos and 22 year old Claudio Jorge De Oliveira
arrested for disrespecting authority.
On the same day, April 20, the judge went to the local prison and told
the police that the two men could be released on bail. On the 22 of
April, the men returned to the estate and reoccupied it. On the 23 the
military police went to the encampment and arrested all the men over
the age of 18 years.
While in prison they were accused of forming a gang and disobeying a
judicial order. On the same day all the men were released with the
exception of Carlos Roberto dos Anjos and Claudio Jorge de Oliveira.
These two men are still in prison. Lawyers for Carlos and Claudio have
four times asked for "habeas corpus". The justice tribunal have
refused the request to set them free. The lawyers have appealed to
the higher tribunal and are awaiting a decision.
In the same process which began with Carlos and Claudio, Jaime Amorim
was also denounced for being coordinator of the MST in Pertnambuco. It
was announced that he would not be released from prison and he is
being charge with `disturbing the public order'.
Regarding this accusation, which is very common against the MST, the
Higher Tribunal have said that occupying land twice for Agrarian
Reform does not give the occupant possession of the land.
We are asking all people who are indignant with yet another
manifestation of this arbitrary act which punished those who struggle
for Land Reform to write or fax to the following address.
Pal cio do Governo
Miguel Arraes de Alencar
PraØa da Repœblica sn - Bairro Sto Ant"nio Cep. 50010 - 040 - Recife
Pernambuco - Brasil
Fone: (081) 425 2222 - Fax: (081) 424 4671
F›rum Sao Bento do Una
Juz Dr. Gilvan Macedo dos Santos
Av. Manoel CŸndido sn.
Centro - Sao Bento do Una
Cep. 55370 - 000
Pernambuco - Brasil
Fax: (081) 735 1218
Source: Landless Movement, 20 August, 1998
- Report by CPT on violence and conflict over the land question
On July 21, the Catholic Church's Land Commission (Comissao Pastoral
da Terra) released its report on violence and conflicts over the land
issue in Brazil for the year 1997. On the one hand, there was a
slight decrease in the number of assassinations and assassination
attempts on the lives of leaders of the landless movement. The CPT
attributes this to the mobilization of popular land movements (such as
the Movimento Sem Terra) and the pressure of public opinion. On the
other hand, there was an increase between 1996 and 1997 in the acts of
violence perpetrated by the state, such as imprisonment of leaders and
evictions of families off the land. In the first half of this year,
already 120 rural workers have been sent to prison