Covering events from January - December 2003

The federal government proposed a new national policy for public security, which set standards for policing, including human rights, for state governments. Nevertheless, security measures adopted by state governments to combat high levels of urban crime continued to result in increasing human rights violations. Thousands of people, predominantly young, poor, black or mixed-race males, were killed in confrontations with the police, often in situations described officially as "resistance followed by death". Few if any of these were fully investigated. Police officers were also killed in the line of duty, especially in São Paulo where several police stations were attacked. "Death squads" involved in "social cleansing" and organized crime were reportedly active in most of the country's 26 states. Officials acknowledged the continued widespread use of torture by law enforcement officers, but this did little to stem its use. Land activists and indigenous peoples continued to suffer attacks and increasing numbers were killed as a result of their fight for land rights. Land activists were detained on apparently politically motivated charges. In response to attacks against human rights defenders, the federal government set up a task force to devise a national plan for their protection. Although several important trials took place, some leading to long awaited convictions of human rights violators, the majority of those responsible for human rights violations continued to enjoy widespread impunity.

Background

In January the newly elected government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil's first Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT – Workers' Party) federal government, took office. Although it made various proposals for social investment, in particular to combat hunger, economic pressures led it to adopt a stringent fiscal policy limiting its social spending, while plans for political reforms dominated its agenda in Congress. Internationally, the government came out strongly in favour of multilateralism, the rule of law and international human rights at a time when such issues were under grave threat. For example, Brazil refused to sign an impunity agreement with the USA on the International Criminal Court (ICC) that would have been in breach of its obligations under international law. However, Brazil's own process to bring its legislation in line with the requirements of the Rome Statute of the ICC was still under review.

At the World Trade Organization conference at Cancún, Mexico, in September, Brazil was one of the main forces behind the formation of a block of nations to challenge the traditional economic powers of the USA and the European Union.

In November, President Lula assured AI's Secretary General that he would support the worldwide campaign for the introduction of an international Arms Trade Treaty. AI noted with interest the government's "disarmament statute", aimed at controlling the carrying and sale of small arms, as a first step towards combating violence.

Police killings, extrajudicial executions and 'death squads'

High levels of urban violence and crime continued to generate a public outcry for stronger policing and further punitive judicial measures. The federal government set out a long-term plan for public security reform, including the implementation of human rights standards, in its Single Public Security System to be adopted by all state governments. However, some state governments, such as those of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, continued to defend the use of repressive policing methods. Both states recorded dramatic increases in the number of civilians killed in conflicts with the police. According to official figures, police killed 915 people in São Paulo, an increase of nearly 11 per cent on the previous year. In Rio de Janeiro, between January and November, state police forces killed 1,195 people, a rise of 32.7 per cent. Both state governments informed AI that increased killings were the result of tougher policing measures. However, many of these killings reportedly took place in situations that pointed to excessive use of force or extrajudicial execution. The killings were rarely investigated as they were often registered as "resistance followed by death". In São Paulo a number of police stations were attacked, reportedly by criminal gangs, resulting in numerous police deaths.

  • On 16 April, four unarmed young men were shot dead in the community of Borel in Rio de Janeiro during an operation carried out by military police. The precise circumstances of the deaths were not clear, but forensic evidence and testimony indicated that the men were summarily executed. A civil police investigation was only initiated two months after the killings, following demonstrations by members of the community and pressure from the federal government. Five military police officers were charged with the killings and suspended from duty. However, AI had concerns about the investigation.

"Death squads" aided by police or former police officers were reportedly responsible for "social cleansing" and organized crime. During a visit to Brazil in September, the federal government told the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Asma Jahangir, that "death squads" were active in 15 of the country's 26 states. The difficulty of protecting witnesses and thus ensuring prosecutions in such cases was made evident by the killing of two witnesses in the states of Bahia and Paraíba who gave evidence to Asma Jahangir. In São Paulo state, members of civil society, the state human rights commission and the police ombudsman denounced the existence of "death squads" in the towns of Guarulhos and Ribeirão Preto, reportedly responsible for numerous killings of young men in circumstances suggesting summary executions. On 16 April a military policeman from Guarulhos stated on Globo TV that he had been involved in the killing of around 115 people and that around 90 per cent of alleged police shoot-outs were staged to hide executions.

Several trials took place in relation to the 1993 Vigário Geral and Candelária massacres, in which 21 shanty town residents and eight street children were killed by military police "death squads". One policeman was sentenced in February to 300 years' imprisonment for the Candelária massacre, and another to 59 years' imprisonment in September for participation in the Vigário Geral massacre. Eighteen police officers were acquitted for participation in the Vigário Geral massacre in two separate hearings. The public prosecutor's office appealed against the acquittal of nine of these men. Out of a total of at least 40 officers originally charged with involvement in the Vigário Geral massacre, only two were reported to be in prison.

Important investigations into police killings and corruption took place.

  • In November federal authorities in São Paulo charged two federal police commissioners and a federal judge with involvement in organized crime and the sale of judicial rulings. The prosecutions were seen as an important step in the fight against corruption within the criminal justice system which had long contributed to impunity surrounding organized crime and human rights violations.
  • On 4 December the São Paulo state prosecutor's office announced that it was charging 53 military police members on triple counts of homicide. The military police, mostly members of the special GRADI unit, originally created to investigate hate crimes, were accused of having summarily executed 12 suspected criminal gang members on the Castelinho motorway on 5 March 2002. The state Supreme Court continued to investigate the involvement of the State Secretary for Public Security and two judges in the same case.

Torture and ill-treatment

Torture continued to be widespread and systematic in most prisons and police stations as well as during arrest. Following the death of Chan Kim Chang, a Chinese businessman reportedly tortured to death in August by prison guards at the Ary Franco prison in Rio de Janeiro, President Lula's Chief of Staff and Rio de Janeiro's State Secretary for Public Security acknowledged publicly that torture was still prevalent in Brazil. Nevertheless, according to reports, the number of charges and convictions under the 1997 law against torture did not rise significantly. On 26 June the government launched a second campaign against torture involving training for prosecutors and judges.

Torture, rebellions, violence between detainees, escapes and industrial disputes continued to be reported at the FEBEM juvenile detention system in São Paulo. In June, AI delegates and local human rights groups visited Unit 30 of the FEBEM Franco da Rocha complex. Delegates documented dozens of cases of beatings and other forms of torture reportedly committed by warders. Minors reported being forced on arrival to run barefoot along corridors strewn with broken glass. Detainees said torture was used by a minority of warders who acted with impunity. Unit 30 and Unit 31 of Franco da Rocha were closed by the end of the year.

Conditions of detention and deaths in custody

Detainees in police stations, prisons and juvenile detention centres continued to be held in cruel, inhuman or degrading conditions. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, limited access to health services, persistent use of torture, riots and prisoner-on-prisoner violence were regularly reported. At least 285,000 inmates were held in a prison system built to accommodate 180,000.

AI continued to express concern about the Differentiated Disciplinary Regime, a proposed disciplinary measure that would allow "dangerous detainees" in high security prisons to be held in solitary confinement for up to a year. Congress formally approved the proposal, but it was widely condemned as being unconstitutional and an abuse of human rights.

In the robbery and theft police station in Belo Horizonte, over 20 detainees were killed by other inmates during the year. Some 530 detainees were held in 22 cells designed to hold a total of 67 detainees. State public prosecutors told AI that they continued to receive complaints of torture from detainees in this and other police stations in the city.

Human rights defenders

Human rights defenders, denounced by certain state officials as well as elements of the media as "defenders of criminals", faced continued threats to their lives. In June, the Special Secretariat for Human Rights of the presidency set up a task force, including state and federal authorities as well as members of civil society, to devise a national plan for the protection of human rights defenders.

In Espírito Santo, the "special mission" set up by the federal government to investigate organized crime and "death squads" in the state made several high-profile arrests, including that of the former president of the state legislative assembly and a former military police colonel. A judge involved in the case, Alexandre Martins, was killed by a gunman in March. The state public security secretary said that he believed the killing was linked to the imprisonment of the former military police colonel.

Violence against indigenous people

Killings, intimidation and harassment of indigenous people escalated. Between January and October, 23 indigenous leaders were killed. Demarcation procedures for indigenous territories were stalled in many areas, reportedly in some cases as a result of political bargaining, dramatically raising tensions. Indigenous leaders were often criminalized as a result of their activities, and attacks on them were frequently dismissed by the authorities as the result of internal tribal disputes. The Minister of Justice told AI that all indigenous killings during the year had been the result of internal conflicts.

  • On 7 February, in Pesqueira, Pernambuco state, the leader of the Xucuru tribe, Marcos Luidson de Araújo, and his 12-year-old nephew escaped from an apparent ambush in which two other indigenous men, Adenílson Barbosa da Silva and Joséilton José dos Santos, were killed. In October 2002 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had called on the Brazilian authorities to give Marcos Luidson protection, but this was not done. One man was charged with involvement in the attack. According to reports, federal police investigating the attack repeatedly attempted to accuse Marcos Luidson of provoking the attack. An area of 27,000 hectares demarcated in favour of the Xucuru in 1992 has been disputed by landowners ever since, and two previous Xucuru leaders have been shot dead since 1998.

Violence and land conflict

Violence, threats, intimidation and political harassment of rural activists continued to be endemic. According to the Pastoral Land Commission, 53 rural activists were killed between January and September.Only five people were in prison for 976 such killings committed between 1985 and 1996. A major flashpoint for rural conflict once again was in the south of Pará state, an area afflicted by slave labour, illegal lumber operations, drug trafficking and land disputes. By September, 31 killings had been recorded in the state, the majority of these in the south.

  • On 12 September, seven rural workers and a farmer were shot dead by gunmen in São Felix do Xingu, a day after they had been threatened by the security guards of a local landowner with whom they were in dispute.
  • In Paraná state on 4 August, Francisco Nascimento de Souza, a leader of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), was found shot dead in Mariluz. Francisco Nascimento was one of seven MST leaders whose names were reportedly on a "death list" in circulation in the state.

Land activists were imprisoned on what appeared to be politically motivated charges. In the Pontal do Parapanema region of São Paulo, state national MST leader José Rainha Júnior was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for the illegal carrying of a weapon. The Special Secretary for Human Rights of the federal government reportedly described the sentence as "absurd". In November the Federal Supreme Court upheld José Rainha Júnior's request for habeas corpus and he was released pending appeal. According to reports, a judge in the region issued 11 arrest warrants against 40 MST activists between September 2002 and September 2003. The warrants, all of which were overturned, characterized the organization as a criminal gang, a characterization AI and others condemned.

Human rights defenders in the northeast reported that eight rural workers detained in Paraíba state were also apparently held on politically motivated charges, and that they were tortured in detention.

The convictions in two separate cases of those responsible for ordering the killing of land activists were an important victory in the fight against impunity. On 25 May in Pará state, Vantuir Gonçalves de Paula and Adilson Carvalho Laranjeira, a former mayor, were sentenced to 19 years and 10 months' imprisonment for ordering the murder of trade unionist João Canuto in Rio Maria in 1985. In Maranhão, landowner Osmar Teodoro da Silva was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment for ordering the killing of Pastoral Land Commission worker and priest Father Josimo Moraes Tavares, shot dead by a gunman in 1986.

AI country visits

AI delegates visited Brazil in March and June to conduct research. In November, AI's Secretary General and delegates met the President and other senior government officials, the governors of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, as well as members of civil society and victims of human rights violations. An AI delegate observed the trial of Vantuir Gonçalves de Paula and Adilson Carvalho Laranjeira in May.

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