Re: prisao de militantes de esquerda no estado- violencia na Bahia .

[Carlos Eduardo Rebello <crebello@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm making some additional comments on Johannes's post:

> Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 22:15:16 +0200
> From: "Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: 
> Re:_Prisao_de_militantes_de_esquerda_no_estado_violencia_na_Bahia-Brasil?=
>
> Here is the English translation of the Portugese text:
>
> Imprisonment of left militants in the state of Bahia, Brazil
>
> The government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC) is introducing
> a state of terror, arresting hundreds of militants in the
> demonstrations against the farce of the "Festival of 500 Years
> since the Discovery" of Brazil.
>
> Today, April 22, in a joint operation of the Military Police of
> Bahia State, the Army and the Federal Police, under the direct
> orders of the FHC government, hundreds of militants of the left
> were arrested

"Detained" would be better, since the protesters were not, AFAIK,
charged or kept in prison. Anyway, the protests - and the very apparatus
set in place by Cardoso and the governor of Bahia (a puppet of the
arch-grey-emminence of the "3rd Republic", President of the Senate
Magalhaes) - empitied the commemorations of any content whatsoever;
there was no feasting, only a frightened Cardoso fulfilling the minimal
agenda required not to give offence to foreign guests. Cardoso,
naturally, had previously heaped verbal abuse on the MST, calling it a
"fascist" organization and evoking his good ol' days when he "struggled
against the dictatorship" (he spent most of the time working for ECLA in
Chile and, after Pinochet, received various stipendia from Ford
Foundation).

 when they demonstrated against the farce of the
> "Festival of 500 Years since the Discovery" of Brazil.
>
> In a warlike operation conducted by a gigantic repressive
> apparatus of more than 6000 men, a state of terror was imposed
> against the demonstrators. All exits from the official
> celebration were closed by the Army and the police to prevent
> demonstrations against the government. Militants of the Movimento
> of Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) [Movement of Landless
> Rural Workers] were arrested in the neighborhood of Porto Seguro,
> the city which was the headquarters of the official events. The
> encampments of the demonstrators which were able to get to Coroa
> Vermelha in the city of Santa Cruz de Cabralia

This is perhaps a misunderstanding. A group of Pataxo Indians had tried
previously to erect a makeshift monument commemorating their struggle
for reservation land in the region, which was destroyed by the state
police for no conceivable reason (Cardoso himselfs pays lip service to
the justice of the Pataxo demands) thereby triggering the whole string
of incidents.

 were brutally
> invaded by the repressive forces, which used tear-gas bombs and
> rubber bullets, unleashing violent physical attacks on the
> demonstrators.
>
> Several left militants were cowardly attacked, like Jose Maria de
> Almeida, member of the National Executive of the Central Unica
> dos Trabalhadores (CUT) [United Workers' Center, the main trade
> union federation, I believe]

CUT-United Workers' Central, a an informal Confederacy of trade unions
friendly to the Workers' Party, and opposed to the similar centrals
Força Sindical (Trade-Union Strenght; Yellow, sympathetic to Cardoso,
and directed- "bossed" would be better - by the shady type Luiz Antônio
Medeiros, a former CPer) and
Social Democracia Sindical (Social-democratic Central of Trade-unions,
also Yellow and directed by minor scabs who have fallen out with
Medeiros; the "Social-democratic" is only for show; remember that
Cardoso is a member of something called the The Party of Brazilian
Social-democracy).

 and of the
> leadership of the PSTU [initials not identified, but presumably
> standing for Socialist United Workers Party].

Unified Socialist Workers' Party, Trotskyst organization affiliated to
the International Workers' League.

 Found among the
> demonstrators arrested by the Military Police and the Federal
> Army was comrade Fernanda Santos, militant of the Liga
> Bolchevique Internacionalista (LBI) [Internationalist Bolshevik
> League].
>
> In the face of the true state of terror introduced by the
> Brazilian government

This is, perhaps an empty cry of "fascist, fascist, fascist" as José
Perez says. Such repressions in Brazil are common fare. What was unique
in the events of Bahia was Cardoso's unusual fright, something that
carries an unmistakably ,albeit light, smell of decay.

and the arrest of hundreds of militants of
> the left, the LBI calls on unions and workers', people's and
> students' organizations, Brazilian and international, to demand
> freedom for the political prisoners of the FHC government.
>
> We call especially on those organizations which regard themselves
> as Trotskyist to initiate a campaign for the immediate release of
> those militants, Trotskyists included, who struggle against the
> pro-imperialist Brazilian government.
>
> April 22
> National Leadership of the Liga Bolchevique Internacionalista
>

Carlos Rebello