BRAZIL: NEW PROBLEMS, OLD ROOTS Osvaldo Jordan October 8, 2009

THE PERSISTENCE OF INEQUALITY In contrast with the Amazon, natural resources in the Brazilian Northeast were completely devastated by the sugar industry, and produced out-migration after the abolition of slavery. Many rural dwellers have migrated to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and other large Brazilian cities. They have become a marginalized population, in which gangs, drugs, and violence are daily occurrences.

THE PERSISTENCE OF INEQUALITY In May 2006, the First Command of the Capital (PCC), a criminal organization, launched a war against the state authorities of Sao Paulo, in which at least 155 people were killed. In the last few years, the US, Colombia, and Brazil have launched several joint operations in which important drug barons have been captured. Like in Colombia, they face the prospects of extradition, and this has accentuated the conflict with the national authorities.

THE RACIAL CONNECTION Sadly, most of the poor, and the prisoners, in Brazil are Afro-Descendants. Traditionally, the country has believed in the myth of racial democracy. Like indigenous peoples, in the 1970s and 1980s, Afro-Brazilians began organizing and mobilizing for social change. New political spaces began opening after the Constitution of 1988, that explicitly called for equality.

THE RACIAL CONNECTION In 1996, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso created the First National Human Rights Program to address discrimination against Afro-Brazilians, women, and disabled people. In 2001, the second phase of that program called for Affirmative Action, most importantly the creation of racial and gender quotas. The Government of Brazil also established provisions for the protection of quilombos.

THE RACIAL CONNECTION President Lula Da Silva has deepened the Affirmative Action program created by Cardoso. His Worker’s Party (PT) lead the creation of a Black Caucus (Bancada Negra) in Congress. According to Htun, Black Feminism represents Double Militancy. The struggle of Black Women is represented by the success of former Congresswoman, Governor of Rio de Janeiro, and favela dweller Benedita Da Silva.