Human-rights activists fear Brazilian ranchers and farmers who turn poor workers into debt slaves could be made virtually immune from punishment because of a congressional amendment tacked onto a bill aimed at boosting the economy of Latin America's largest nation.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces a deadline today on whether to sign, veto or change the bill approved a month ago by Congress.
Lula's labor minister recommended a veto for, but Brazil's first working class president has not indicated how he will act.
Debt slavery is common in the Amazon region of Brazil, where poor workers are lured to remote areas to clear jungle land and work as hired hands by farmers and loggers who charge them exorbitant prices for food and transportation, turning them into virtual slaves.
The Roman Catholic Church's Land Pastoral group estimates some 25,000 Brazilians live in slave-like conditions.
The government has managed to some degree to keep the problem in check through Labor Ministry audits of the ranchers and loggers.
The amendment would strip auditors of their power to investigate relationships between employers and employees.
Auditors currently can immediately fine and discipline individuals and companies when irregularities are found, but passage of the bill would eliminate that power, leaving only judges to decide whether a relation between employer and employee constitutes slavery.
Since legal cases typically take years to work their way through Brazilian courts, punishing ranchers will be much harder if Lula approves the amendment as written, said Jorge Souto Maior, a labor judge and law professor at the University of Sao Paulo.
The Labor Ministry has been monitoring farmers and ranchers with a group it calls the Mobile Verification Task Force.
Founded in 1995, the group says it has freed more than 21,000 workers from debt slave conditions at more than 1,600 farms across Brazil.
"This will not continue to happen if the law is sanctioned," said Luis Claudio Mattos of Catholic Relief Services in Brazil.
"The auditors' verification won't be as effective because the farmers won't be punished immediately, and it will take forever for the judicial system to take action," he said.
The amendment to the bill -- which also unifies two federal tax departments and eliminates bureaucratic business barriers -- was actually requested by Brazilian media organizations seeking more flexibility in the way they use freelancers.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese