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 There are cadavers and cadavers, isn’t it true? Some are sacred. Others aren’t worth a penny. Killed February 12, in Anapu, state of Pará, was the American Sister Dorothy Mae Stang.
The Nation’s President, not only sent two thousand Army troops to the region, but also created natural environment preservation areas and a crisis office that will concentrate actions from ministries and federal agencies in the interior of the state of Pará – tells us Friday’s edition of the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
An interim measure, six decrees, and a bill proposal make up the package. Only in the state of Pará, two forest preservation units covering approximately 9.4 million acres – area equal to two Sergipe states.
Behind all this, the fear of the Nation’s President before the international press.
When the tupiniquim (a common term in Brazil, which refers to native Tupiniquim Indians, often used in a self-deprecating, mocking context) press published interviews in which he spitted out his affection for cachaça (Brazil’s potent national liquor), no restrictions toward the reporters.
As soon as The New York Times picks up what amounted to no secret to anyone, and President Lula displayed his “arrest and beat up” side, demanding the expulsion of the journalist from the country.
History repeats itself. If a Brazilian cop is killed while performing his duties, not a single reaction from the Planalto (the President’s official quarters). If a foreign activist is killed and this crime occupies the front pages of the international press, Lula transforms himself into a generalissimo and turns a police operation into a war theater.
In the same edition of the Folha, a photo in three columns shows us the ridicule that our Armed Forces undergo in an effort to support the presidential charade. Two helicopters land on a soccer field, under the watch of dozens of soldiers lying on the turf with cocked rifles.
It even seems like we are in Vietnam of the 70s or in Iraq during the war. As if the nation was threatened by a powerful guerilla force, when it is common knowledge that the nun was killed by two gunmen. To pose for the press, the so-called glorious national Army has no qualms in contributing to “Lulesc” theatrical production.
The American religious had as mission in Brazil the disappropriation of public properties controlled by grileiros (crooked rural area dealers and brokers), the settlement of families in small farm units, and the promotion of police actions as mediators of conflicts.
Say what you may about her, but she is just another of so many foreign activists who chose Brazil as their utopian lab.
Let us invert the situation. Imagine, the reader, a Brazilian woman attempting to disappropriate land in the US or settle families. At best, she would be deported the next day. Here, in the backyard, the Yankees command land invasion, condemn government policies, and still pose as martyrs.
But the role of Chica Mendes of Anapu was not entitled to regional unanimity. On April 30, 2003, Town Council declared the missionary persona non grata, “as an act of repudiation of the people in response to her disaggregative actions.”
The document was sent to the President’s office, ministries of Environment and Justice, Congress, the state government of Pará, Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment), Incra (National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform), and the Federal Police – and ignored by all. Today, from what we read in the papers, her cadaver only emanates odors of sanctity.
To general Jairo Cesar Nass, Operation Pacajá commander, aimed at arresting Sister Dorothy’s killers, “the nun’s killing is only the tip of the iceberg.” For the sagacious general, there are organized gangs in the region that in an insolent fashion carry on their business, outside the law, and are used to solving their matters through intimidation and murder, creating difficulty for the security of the region.
“These gangs are made up by individuals from other areas, acting on the interest of loggers and others involved in the fight for land and illegal gold mining,” he said. They created representative bodies and armed groups that have no scruples to reach their goals.”
So broad is the general’s perspective that he doesn’t see where he is sitting, on top of this immense iceberg with so many emerged edges that already constitutes terra firma, the Landless Movement.
Not just organized gang, but organized nationally, with financial, legal, and logistic backing from the Brazilian government itself; and not just the Brazilian government, but also from international institutions that fund their land invasions, productive or not, their destruction of highway pay-tolls, their taking of hostages, their evasion of funds, and even their crimes.
Gang with free access to the highest offices of government and the press, that creates schools to form new partisans. With the applause from the so-called Human Rights advocates and the national intellectualia.
The American religious is beginning a very promising career as saint. Within a few months, we’ll have foundations and streets under her name, not to mention pilgrimages to her grave. Another year or two, some miracles to her résumé. Soon after, the beatification process.
Saint Dorothy Mae Stang, the saint of two nations: sounds good and certainly will make the movies, and of tear-dropping kind. The Amazon, with its wealth, promises a bountiful harvest of saints and martyrs in the coming years.
As to Luiz Pereira da Silva, this poor devil killed in Quipapá, state of Pernambuco, now, him no one remembers. He was tortured and murdered on the Saturday of this past Carnaval, by members of this gang so immense that general Nass can no longer get a view of, so enormous are its dimensions.
Obscure military cop, he was tortured and killed by the men from the Landless movement, while fulfilling his duties. He didn’t deserve a single mention by the President, not even a word of compassion from any minister, nor gigantic operations by the Armed Forces, nor a mass at Sé Cathedral, much less front pages throughout the international press.
Total silence from the troops that combat torture. He is Brazilian, not worthy of tears or honors. His murderers likely will not be indicted. As a member of the Landless movement already said, “in a crowd, it’s hard to know who pulls the trigger.”
Blood from the left is sacred and demands punishment. The cadaver of a cop, so dumb as to carry out his obligations in this land where all the honors and glory are bestowed on those who break the law, is not worthy of even a mass.
Janer Cristaldo—he holds a PhD from University of Paris, Sorbonne—is an author, translator, lawyer, philosopher and journalist and lives in São Paulo. His e-mail address is janercr@terra.com.br.
Translated from the Portuguese by Eduardo Assumpção de Queiroz. He is a freelance translator, with a degree in Business and almost 20 years of experience working in the fields of economics, communications, social and political sciences, and sports. He lives in São Paulo, Brazil. His email: eaqus@terra.com.br.
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The inability of the Brazilian government to establish effective laws and rights for all people is the downfall of the country. Lula is a puppet that is forced to react to situations instead of taking a proactive stance on anything.
Taking cheap shots at the US for a ruthless murder is offensive.