By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 15 2001 (IPS)

Pureza Lopes Loyola never doubted that her missing son had fallen prey to labour contractors who recruit people to work under slave-like conditions in northeastern Brazil. When her son finally turned up three years later, he himself confirmed her suspicions.

Antonio Abel was a “naive” 19-year-old in 1993, according to his mother. And Açailandia, a city of 100,000 in the state of Maranhao, where he went in search of work, is the main recruiting grounds for the “gatos” (literally “cats”) who engage cheap labour for the “latifundios” or great landed estates in the north of Brazil.

Lopes Loyola had already lost her brother Ataíde José Lopes under similar circumstances in 1974. She believes he is still alive, and working in a state of involuntary servitude on some latifundio in Brazil’s Amazon jungle region.

After fruitless trips to the capital, Brasilia, to seek assistance from the ministries of justice and labour, and even from two different presidents, Lopes Loyola decided she would have to search for her son on her own, with money borrowed from relatives.

She made undercover visits to a number of suspicious latifundios in the states of Maranhao and Pará, at times accompanied by reporters, relatives or activists from the landless rural workers movement, and at other times alone, armed with a tape recorder and camera.

Although she did not find her son, she did discover other workers living in servitude, and the complaints she filed helped secure the release of many. She risked her life, but told IPS that “you do anything, anything at all, for your son, and God gave me the intelligence and courage to investigate and get to the bottom of things.”

Antonio made it back to his mother’s house on his own, 38 months after he went missing. Although he was weak and sick, he escaped from the second estate to which he was enslaved, and still suffers the effects of malaria, hepatitis and torture.

In 1997, Lopes Loyola received a prize for her activism against modern-day slavery, from the Britain-based Anti-Slavery International, and visited London and other European capitals.

The activist, a retired public employee who has a small family farm in Bacabal, some 300 kms from Açailandia, continues her struggle today.

Lopes Loyola gathers all the information she can get her hands on about latifundios that enslave workers, while raising funds for new expeditions. Her aims are to find her brother who disappeared nearly 27 years ago, and to free other workers living in servitude.

The “gatos” lure the workers with false promises of well- paying jobs.

But once they arrive at the remote charcoal-producing or agricultural ranches which have been carved out of the jungle, the labourers find that they are already in debt, owing their “employers” the cost of transport for the long journey, the “rent” for housing in rickety shacks or tents, as well as the price of their working tools and supplies, which they are forced to “purchase” at the company store.

Located far from any town and kept from leaving the ranches by armed guards who mete out harsh punishment to anyone who tries to escape, the workers have no choice but to buy their food and other supplies at high prices from the company store, and find themselves falling farther and farther into debt, while their pay never materialises.

Many are killed when they rebel against the subhuman conditions or try to escape.

The bodies of those who are murdered at isolated charcoal- producing ranches are generally burnt, says Lopes Loyola, who adds that “they make charcoal out of people.”

The Pastoral Commission for Land (CPT), a Catholic Church group, has been denouncing and investigating this social scourge since the 1970s. In 1999, it documented 1,099 slaves who were freed by authorities, mainly in the north, but also in industrialised states like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Parana.

However, that figure does not even begin to reflect the reality, according to both activists and authorities.

The labour ministry estimates that for every enslaved worker who is freed, three remain in a state of servitude, friar Henry des Roziers of the Dominican Order told IPS. Des Roziers, a 71- year-old French national, is the coordinator of the CPT in Xinguara, located in the southern part of the state of Pará, where most of the cases occur.

A “mobile team” of inspectors created by the labour ministry in 1995 has made some headway in the fight against modern-day slavery, said Des Roziers, who is also a lawyer. The inspectors, who answer to the central government rather than local or state authorities, are more effective given their lack of connections to local leaders and landholders, he explained.

But it remains an uphill battle, and there are even setbacks, such as an agreement between the team of inspectors and three large landowners who pledged to respect Brazil’s labour laws on their 23 estates in Pará.

The pact limited inspections on the properties of the three landowners, who Des Roziers said were well-known for using bonded labour.

Furthermore, impunity remains the norm for the estate-owners, very few of whom are ever penalised, with sentences that are never served or absurdly small fines, he complained. When land on which slave labour has been discovered is expropriated by the state, as stipulated by law, the indemnification “is like a prize,” because it is always “higher than the going market value,” said the friar.

Despite the attempts to crack down on the phenomenon, the situation is still shocking in southern Pará, according to Des Roziers, who has lived in the region since 1979, under constant death threats.

Last year, 400 bonded labourers were rescued from estates in the area. However, 300 workers were trucked in from the neighbouring state of Tocantins, and their whereabouts are unknown, said Des Roziers, who added that they were undoubtedly living in involuntary servitude.

The appalling poverty in the region, high unemployment and the decline in some local economic activities like “garimpo” or informal gold-panning operations, are other factors fomenting slavery. “To escape hunger, many accept the deceptive job offers,” said the activist.

Spanish lay missionary Carmen Bascarán, one of the heads of the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights in Açailandia, said meanwhile that more than 300 workers were freed last month from three estates located in the municipality. “The local people are more aware now, and they file complaints and spread information,” she commented.

Besides involuntary servitude, the Centre fights child labour and the exploitation of workers whose rights and benefits are not respected, while it helps citizens obtain legal documents like identity cards. “One grave problem is that for several years, there have been no judges or prosecutors in Açailandia,” Bascarán pointed out.

Excerpt: