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“Volkswagen subsidiary in Brazil is liable for critical human rights violations and abhorrent crimes,” says Brazilian prosecutor Rafael Garcia within the “Weltspiegel” program broadcast on German public tv. “We’re sure that Volkswagen will acknowledge its accountability and {that a} settlement will likely be reached so employees of that point are compensated.”
Garcia has led a process power investigating trendy slavery throughout Brazil since 2015. Prosecutors have summoned representatives of Volkswagen to look in Brasilia on June 14, 2022, to debate a potential out-of-court settlement for the victims.
The duty power has additionally examined the time of dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. In 1973, the army regime invited VW to purchase 140,000 hectares of land within the state of Para within the Amazon area. The carmaker was seeking to broaden its operations and meant to clear the land to make use of as a large cattle farm. Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino in Santana de Araguaia turned often called the Fazenda Volkswagen.
Former employees on the cattle farm say the situations had been akin to slavery
German carmaker within the Amazon
A German carmaker elevating cattle within the rainforest? This would possibly seem unusual, nevertheless it was a part of a nationwide technique. By contributing to the event of the Amazon, Volkswagen wouldn’t solely be incomes cash. The undertaking would even be consistent with the army regime’s desire for utilizing sources moderately than giving them away, as per the motto “integrar para nao entregar” (“combine in order to not give up”).
The farm managers commissioned an employment company to clear the rainforest, recruiting non permanent employees from the area’s distant villages and promising them good wages. As an alternative, the employees confronted exploitative working situations and debt bondage. “On the farm, we might solely purchase meals at absurd costs,” remembers former employee Jose Pereira. “By the point we had cleared the primary 100 hectares, we had a whole lot of money owed with the contractor. He mentioned to us: ‘You need to go? No! It’s a must to work off your money owed first.'”
Pereira is without doubt one of the predominant witnesses for the case towards Volkswagen. He and others additionally spoke with the German broadcaster ARD for the “Weltspiegel” program. They talked of being tied up after attempting to flee, of being pressured to work at gunpoint, they usually additionally talked about deaths.
“If somebody tried to flee, the overseers would chase them and shoot,” Pereira mentioned. “They beat up individuals who tried to flee. On the road, within the shacks, everybody noticed it.”
Case primarily based on information from Catholic priest
The case can be primarily based on information compiled by Catholic priest Ricardo Rezende, who was liable for offering pastoral care to agricultural employees on the time and campaigned for human rights and land reform. He too acquired many loss of life threats.
He documented a number of hundred instances, however little occurred for over 40 years. In 2020, nevertheless, after VW confronted as much as its involvement in human rights violations throughout the dictatorship in Brazil and agreed to pay reparations to a few of victims, Rezende noticed a brand new probability. He handed his materials to the general public prosecutor’s workplace, which launched an investigation.
On Might 22 of this 12 months, he was named an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro, the place he teaches on the College of Brazil, by the town parliament for his marketing campaign towards trendy slavery.
In the present day, the Pastoral Land Fee (CPT) continues to marketing campaign towards slavery in Brazil. In a press release, it mentioned {that a} type of slave labor existed in all the nation’s states. “Since 1995, over 58,000 have been liberated from slave-like working situations,” nevertheless.
Former employees spoke to German broadcasters concerning the working situations
‘Full nonsense’ says former supervisor
The Swiss agronomist and former supervisor of the cattle farm in Santana de Araguaia Friedrich Brügger describes the allegations that VW engaged in trendy slavery as “full nonsense.” “As if there have been nothing extra necessary at the moment than bettering the previous,” he informed “Weltspiegel.”
He began work on the cattle farm in 1974, spending 12 years managing it till VW bought the enterprise in 1986 after it turned much less profitable. He returned to Switzerland after spending 40 years in Brazil.
“The accountability of an organization ends someplace,” he mentioned, explaining that it was necessary to contemplate the circumstances. “When there are over 1,000 males in a single room, issues aren’t at all times light. That is apparent. Particularly in the course of the jungle,” he mentioned.
These feedback didn’t go down effectively at Volkswagen. “We wish to level out that Mr. Friedrich Brügger doesn’t communicate for Volkswagen AG and that his statements contradict Volkswagen’s values,” reads a press release offered to DW. VW took the incidents described on the Fazenda Rio Cristalino “very critically.”
This text was translated from German.
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