For those who study Brazil or follow the news closely, a seemingly constant stream of stories about destruction in the Amazon is the norm. As much as the Amazon is nearly a separate world from Brazil, the news that comes from the region is almost a world apart as well, and sometimes with greater coverage by the international media than the Brazilian national press. To some extent, I sometimes feel inundated by the same stories over and over, and also a bit disheartened by how backward the region is compared to other booming parts of Brazil.
But one reporter, one of the most talented foreign correspondents in Brazil, has made it his mission to ensure that the Amazon's most important stories are heard around the world. Gabriel Elizondo, an American correspondent for Al Jazeera English based in São Paulo, has written about the Amazon extensively, and recently created a documentary to chronicle the lives and deaths of Zé Claudio and Maria, environmental activists who were murdered in Pará in May. He's written a number of articles about the couple and the murder case, and then recently put together this fantastic documentary.
It was really after seeing They Killed Sister Dorothy that I became interested in her case and of the plight of activists in the Amazon, and watching Elizondo's documentary "The Crying Forest" I feel the same renewed sadness and frustration. Reading about the activists is one thing, but seeing certain things with your own eyes that makes all the difference, be it the terrible anguish of Zé's sister, hard to watch video of the crime scene, or Zé's adorable niece who actually bears Dorothy's name. I highly recommend the documentary (you can watch it in its entirety here), and also watching the Sister Dorothy documentary as well, if you haven't seen it yet (watch the PBS special about the Sister Dorothy documentary below).
Check out more details about the journey and the Trail of Dreams (I recommend the Post piece in particular). Hopefully I will hear back from Felipe this week with some more details about his experience and his plans for the future to share here on the blog.
When I read about the Trail of Dreams march in the New York Times this weekend, I was naturally inclined to write about one of the four students walking from Miami to Washington. Felipe Matos, 23, was sent to the U.S. at age 14 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Though he was an A student and was accepted into Duke University, he could not attend because of his legal status. Luckily, he excelled at Miami Dade College, where he became an advocate for immigrant rights. Now, he's on a march to DC to pressure the President to get moving on immigration reform.
I got in touch with Felipe during his first days on the road, and he was kind enough to answer some of my questions after a long day. In his response, he also added that his walking companions include three other immigrants: an Ecuadorian, a Venezuelan, and a Colombian. Only the Colombian has managed to normalize his immigration status. He told me that he volunteered for Students Working for Equal Rights, one of the groups that campaigned for President Obama in 2008. He told me: "I understand the risks I am running since I am undocumented myself, and we are walking through one of the most anti-immigrant regions in the US: the deep south. But my present is unbearable! I can't go to school, get a job or even get a driver's license. This is more than a simple question of legislation; it is about human dignity."
Without futher ado, an interview with an extremely brave Carioca.
1. I read that you are originally from Rio de Janeiro. What neighborhood or zona did you grow up in, and what was it like living there?
I lived em Equitativa, Duque de Caxias. I was very poor back home - as matter of fact, we barely had food on our table most of the time. However, I had the privilege to have a wonderful family that never failed to give me a sound base for my future. For instance, when I was 6 six years old, I remember my mother coming to me and tellling me to give away the only bread we could afford at the time to a homeless lady with a crying child. At that point she said, "Felipe, if you want to change the world, you have to work until your hands bleed. When they start hurting, acknowledge the pain and go right back to work, because there is so much to be done." Those are the principles I brought with me to the USA. That's why I am doing this walk. I have been working for immigrant rights and different legislation such as the DREAM Act for at least 2 years. (This legislation would allow young people who came here before the age of 16 to get conditional residency if they go to college for 2 years or spend 2 years in the military.) I, alongside other national young leaders, were in the forefront witnessing so many people losing hope because they were not allowed to go to college. I noticed that it didn't matter how many protests or rallies we organized, so I decided to do something more drastic, such as this walk. Today, I was looking at my blisters and I thought that the pain I am feeling is so little compared with the pain immigrant communities have to face because of the broken US immigration system. So many families are having their families been split apart or students that can't finish college. For instance, I met students including a Chinese young man that tried to commit suicide 3 times because he felt trapped, since he couldn't finish his education. This is just one of the many unfortunate examples of the painful reality that we have to face everyday. We are sharing our stories because we want to change the stigma that undocumented immigrants have to face in the US. Words such as "illegal" only put our people down; it creates a second rate citizen. We have been contributing to this contry for so long- all we are asking is for full citizenship.
2. You came to the US when you were 14. What ultimately brought you here? Why did your mom decide to send you? My mother got very sick and she couldn't take care of me anymore, so she sent me to live with a family member in Miami.
3. You are clearly very gifted. What challenges have you faced to get an education and access educational/professional opportunities in both Brazil and the US?
I had to face extreme poverty back in Brazil and in the US, I had to face my immigration status. In both sides of the hemisphere I was told that because of reasons beyond my control I couldn't fulfill my full potential. Needless to say, I did not believe in those lies. In the US, I was Student Government President at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus and student representative in the board of Trustess representing more than 160,000 students. I got four national awards so far: All USA Academic Team (This put me in the top 20 students in the nation from community college in 2008), New Century Scholars (Top student in Floridain 2008), Campus Compact service excellence (Top student leader in Florida in 2007) and Davis Putter Award for my work with social justice this year. Even though I have achived a lot, I was still denied entrance to college. I was accepted by Duke University and couldn't go because I couldn't apply for financial aid. I did not give up, however: after struggling a lot, I was able to enroll at St. Thomas University a year after I graduated from the Honors college at Miami Dade College. I was part of an accelerated law program but after I was already taking classes I was told I couldn't continue because of my status. If I was in Brazil, I would have to face similar condition since my lack of monetary power would not allow me to pursue a higher education.
Recently, the media has come under attack in Brazil, but bloggers too have had their right to free speech challenged. Threatened with law suits and sometimes even death threats, Brazilian political blogs have been shutting down right and left, including the well-known Nova Corja blog. I decided to feature one of these blogs, since the author has refused to shut down her blog and to stand up to one of Brazil's biggest bullies and most deeply corrupt politicians, Jose Sarney. (Thanks to Simone for the tip)
Alcinea Cavalcante is a 53 year-old blogger who lives in the Northeastern state of Amapa. A woman of modest means, she's better off than many of her fellow citizens in her region, and owns a car and a laptop. She's also a popular figure in her neighborhood, and her backyard is frequently filled with people.
Alcinea began her blog in 2004, and became the "matriarch of Amapa's blogosphere," writing about local affairs and politics, amongst other issues.
In 2006, she wrote a humorous post poking fun at the politicians in the upcoming elections, and a reader made a critical remark about Senator Sarney, who was running for reelection (he is a former president and one of the wealthiest and most notoriously corrupt politicians in the Northeast, with his hands firmly in the Brazilian government's coffers). The following day, Alcinea received word that Sarney was suing for defamation. Unfazed, she posted a photo of graffiti she'd spotted in her city, telling Sarney to "get out." Sarney began a second case against her. She refused to back down, and continued her critical posts, allowing critical comments as well. Soon after, Sarney had 20 cases of defamation against her that added up to a sum of R$2 million (US$1 million).
When the cases began to pile up, Alcinea's Brazil-based internet host, UOL, took her blog off the air. She decided to move the blog to Blogger, owned by Google, which does not assume responsibility for blog content.
Interestingly, Sarney's lawyer has worked for the Brazilian Senate since 1992, and is currently employed as a government official ("technical assistant") in the office of one of Sarney's political allies. Smug and slimy, he insists that Alcinea is "playing the victim" and that her blog represents an "aggression" against his client. He has been successful in convincing the courts that Alcinea is guilty.
As time went on and Alcinea continued with her blog, Sarney continued suing her, opening new cases against her, even for ridiculous reasons like posting song lyrics by Chico Buarque. He even continued suing her after he won the election. Other bloggers allied with Alcinea and criticized Sarney's obvious censorship and abuse of power. In the meantime, Alcinea won an award from Reporters without Borders for her courage.
But as it stands, Alcinea owes R$2 million to Sarney which she must pay to the courts, plus hefty fines for failing to pay until now. Once, a hitman was hired to kill Alcinea for her outspoken political opinions, and fired at her house, but she says she's more disgusted by Sarney than the gunman. Besides her legal woes, her son has been blackballed and cannot find work.
Despite all this, Alcinea continues to blog and to write without fear, despite the fact that the corrupt courts and politicians are on her back and expect her to pay an insane sum to a man who has already stolen an untold and likely unspeakable amount of money from the government.
I recently discovered CQC (Custe o que custar), a comedy show on Band in Brazil, which roughly translates as "Whatever it takes." Though it is mostly a mixture of comedy segments, it has a fantastic political segment called "Proteste já" (Protest Now). The show sends one of the hosts, Rafinha Bastos, to investigate a social problem in a town or city in Brazil, in an effort to bring attention to the problem and to alert the responsible authorities, to ultimately resolve the problem.
In this week's episode, Rafinha (who is, incidentally, a Jewish stand-up comedian) goes to a town in Sao Paulo state where the public hospital is in a state of complete disarray. Despite the fact that the city government spends twice as much as the legal amount on public health, there are no doctors in the ER the day Rafinha arrives, with few doctors available, a broken X-ray machine, and insufficient medical instruments. Rafinha goes to the Secretary of Health in the city and gets up in his face (unlike the soft-balling Globo version of "Proteste Ja" when they show the problem, play dramatic music, and call it a day). Dressed up as Death, he reads him a long list of problems with the hospital, and asks him to give a definite answer about when and how he'll deal with the crisis. He also asks if the secretary uses the hospital, the only one in town; he meekly replies: "I go to a private hospital."
Inspired by the segment, I'm starting a new series to shed light on local issues in the Americas not getting enough attention in the international media that need to be addressed.
For the first post, let's have a look at some serious shenanigans going on in Para, one of the most lawless states in Brazil. It is also in the Amazon, and one of the most rapidly deforested areas in Brazil, due to illegal logging and cattle ranching.
Ibama, the government branch responsible for protecting the environment and punishing those who destroy it, is currently working on an operation called Boi Pirata II in the Novo Progresso area of Para, which is the municipality with the highest rate of deforestation in the country. The operation is being led by Ibama agent Leslie Tavares, who is managing one hundred agents from Ibama, the National Security Forces, the Federal Police, and the Federal Highway Police, working together to fine illegal loggers and confiscate illegal goods. In 2008, Ibama ran Operation Boi Pirata I and managed to confiscate 3,500 heads of cattle and remove another 100,000 from illegal ranches. So far, Operation Boi Pirata II has punished ranchers with $15,000 in fines and has removed 2,500 heads of cattle.
The area of the operation, which includes a national park, stretches 13,000 square kilometers, 11% of which is now completely deforested due to illegal commercial activity. The operation seeks to limit area destroyed for cattle ranching and to enforce environmental law. However, cattle ranchers essentially run entire areas of the Northeast with an iron fist, like in the days of the coronels.
Sadly, the judicial system in Para, one of the most corrupt in the country, is not always supportive of the federal government's efforts, and is often supportive of the local strongmen. This week, one of the ranchers who was fined in the operation, one Jocemar Picolotto, went to a state judge asking him to put a stop to the operation. The judge conceded the request, and ruled that Boi Pirata II must halt its efforts and return all confiscated cattle to their owners. Ibama, however, ignored the ban, after a federal appeals court (TRF-1) swiftly overturned the ruling. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, the state judge ordered that Leslie Tavares, the head of the operation, be imprisoned for failing to halt the operation. In other words--the court ordered a federal agent to be thrown in jail for doing his job.
Chaos ensued when military police came to put Tavares behind bars, while Ibama agents and federal police tried to help Tavares. But the military police succeeded and put Tavares in jail. Later, Ibama informed the authorities of the TRF's ruling, and Tavares was released. Now, Ibama says, the judge could be thrown in jail for failing to enforce the higher court's ruling, but it is not clear what will happen to him or to Tavares.
