ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
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CONTENT
BRAZIL: Indigenous people and German NGO block access to Procter&Gamble CHILE: Chilean Churches should ask forgiveness for their silence and support for the Pinochet dictatorship CUBA: Significant interest in Bible reading in Cuba NICARAGUA: Gustavo Parajon to receive Human Rights award granted by the Baptist World Alliance PERU: People believe it is acceptable to abuse and discriminate against domestic workers: Bolivian justice minister
---------- BRAZIL
Indigenous people and German NGO block access to Procter&Gamble
BRASILIA, May 4 (ALC). Activists from the German NGO Robin Wood and two Brazilian indigenous blocked the entrance to the multinational Procter&Gamble in the city of Neuss, close to Dusseldorf, protesting that indigenous communities had been evicted from their ancestral lands, said the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI).
The NGO Robin Wood, which specializes in environmental issues, expressed its concern about the situation of Tupiniquim and Guarani communities evicted from their lands in the state of Espiritu Santo in northeastern Brazil by the multinational Aracruz. This company, the largest world producer of whitened cellulose has more than 247,000 hectares of Eucalyptus plantations.
Procter&Gamble buys raw material from Aracruz to produce Tempo paper towels, one of the best known brands in Europe and Carmin and Bess toilet paper.
Paulo Henrique Vicente de Oliveira, Tupiniquim from the village of Caieira Velha and Wera Kwaray, of the village Buena Esperanza, of the state of Espíritu Santo joined the protest spearheaded by Robin Wood, according to the CIMI, a body linked to the Brazilian Bishops Conference.
"The Germans should know that we, Tupiniquim and Guaraníes were brutally expelled for the raw material of Tempo," denounced Paulo Henrique, who coordinates the Indigenous Peoples from the Northeast of Minas Gerais and Espiritu Santo organization (APOINME), the second largest indigenous organization in Brazil.
According to indigenous leader Wera Kwaray, from the Guarani village of Buena Esperanza, Procter&Gamble is also responsible for stealing the land, destroying the forest and polluting the rivers with the agrochemicals coming from Aracruz.
The indigenous lobbied the German multinational so that it would lobby Aracruz to return 11,009 hectares to indigenous communities in Espiritu Santo.
Anthropological studies carried out by the National Foundation of the Indian (FUNAI) in 1996 identified 18,000 hectares of Tupiniquim and Guarani indigenous lands in Espiritu Santo. Two years later there were barely 7,061 hectares after an unusual decision in the wake of an agreement with Aracruz Celulosa, said the CIMI text.
Indigenous communities and the company are disputing another 11,000 hectares. On January 20 this year the Federal Police evicted the Guarani and Tupiniquim communities from the land. All the homes in the villages of Córrego de Ouro and Olho d'Água were destroyed.
The indigenous communities of Espiritu Santo demanded that a Procter&Gamble cancel the contract with Aracruz Celulosa, while this company does not resolve the land conflict.
-------- CHILE
Chilean Churches should ask forgiveness for their silence and support for the Pinochet dictatorship
SANTIAGO, May .4 (ALC). "Chilean Churches have pending the task of asking society to forgive them for remaining silent or even worse for having supported the actions of the military government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet," said Chilean Pastor Eduardo Cid Cortes, secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) for the Andean region.
Cid, pastor of the Evangelical Wesleyan Church said that there "were very few Churches who made their prophetic voice heard in one of the darkest period in Chilean society."
He said that when democracy returned to the country in 1990 under the Patricio Alywin government some voices raised the need for Churches to ask forgiveness but as time passed the idea dissipated. "Now it is time for Churches to recognize their mistake," he said.
He also lamented the fact that Churches have lost the urgent need to present a united testimony "out of jealously of the leaders or to privilege the denominational profile," he said. He recalled that there was previously one single representative entity of the Evangelical people, the Committee of Evangelical Organizations (COE) and now there are four. As a result government officials do not know which is the most representatives.
He even questioned the demands of Evangelicals to have chaplains in the armed forces, hospitals and jails. He said he did not clearly understand why as some experiences have shown that many leaders confuse spiritual assistance with proselytism," he added. Overcoming these practices will take many more years.
Chilean evangelicals represent 16 percent of the total population. In recognition of the space they occupy in Chilean society the government of Ricardo Lagos named Methodist Bishop Neftalí Aravena as the first Evangelical chaplain in the presidential palace and created the Day of Evangelical Churches to be celebrated for the first time on October 31, when Churches recall the Protestant Reform of the XVI Century.
According to Cid there are many signs of openness toward Evangelicals on the part of the Michele Bachelet government but there is a lack of greater opening on the part of Evangelical leaders and a genuine desire to offer a united testimony to the country.
-------- CUBA Significant interest in Bible reading in Cuba
HAVANA, May 3 (ALC/Monitor) Despite the fact that Cuba tends to be identified as an atheist country so far this year more than 87,000 copies of the Bible have been distributed, a number that outstrips Church membership.
According to Baptist Pastor Jose Lopez, of the Cuban Council of Churches, in some places in the interior the population complains about not receiving copies.
Since January this year 178,154 copies of the New Testament have been distributed, 504,000 bible readings, 99,250 flyers, 2,500 magazines including the "Bible in the Americas," according to Lopez.
The Bibles and other Christian texts are donated by the "Biblical Societies Fraternity," of the Bible Societies of Brazil, Mexico and Spain as well as "Cook Communication Co." of Canada and the "World Service Ministries."
The Rev. Lopez, who is secretary of the Bible Commission of the CIC indicated that since 1993, thanks to a donation from a print shop of the Bible Societies they are publishing Bible Study material in the "Augusto Cotto" Center in Matanzas with the support of the "Bible Society of Mexico."
----------------- NICARAGUA
Gustavo Parajon to receive Human Rights award granted by the Baptist orld Alliance
By Trinidad Vásquez
MANAGUA, May 3 (ALC). Gustavo Parajón, founder of the Pro Denominational Alliance Council of Evangelicals Churches (CEPAD) and one of the most influential Evangelical leaders in Nicaragua will receive the 2006 Human Rights Award next July, granted by the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).
The BWA that brings together 214 Baptist conventions and associations and more than 34 million faithful around the world agreed to grant the award to Parajon for his contribution to reconciliation and peace in Nicaragua, as well as the intense pastoral and social work he has carried out for more than 40 years.
Denton Lotz, general secretary of the BWA, announced that as of 2006 the Alliance's General Council decided to grant the award on an annual basis to recognize Baptists who have struggle for freedom and justice in the world.
Laureates in recent years include former US President Jimmy Carter and US Missionary Lauran Bethell. The award ceremony will take place in Mexico during the annual BWA Annual Board Meeting to be held July 3-8.
Interviewed by ALC, the 70-year-old Parajon voiced his gratitude to the BWA for the award and said he would share it with the people of Nicaragua and the CEPAD pastors' committees. The work in the field of human rights has been possible thanks to the Churches, pastors and community leaders who supported the Peace commissions, he said.
A doctor and pastor of the First Baptist Church of Managua Parajon is one of the 16 WBA vice presidents for the 2006-2010 period. As well as founding CEPAD, after the 1972 earthquake that destroyed Managua, he has been a firm supporter of the Vaccination and Community Development Project of Nicaragua (PROVADENIC), an organization that provides primary health care.
In the 1980 he was appointed a member of the National Reconciliation Commission by the president of Nicaragua, together with Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, former Catholic Archbishop of Managua. He is a founder of the Peace Commissions in Nueva Guinea, a city 300 kilometers southeast of the capital, in the heart of the war that broke out in the mid-1980s between the Army and the anti-Sandinista resistance.
The information about the award quickly circulated among Church leaders who said that it was an honor for the Evangelical people of Nicaragua and above all for Baptists.
------- PERU
People believe it is acceptable to abuse and discriminate against domestic workers: Bolivian justice minister
LIMA, May. 2 (ALC). Women in Latin America, unlike those in industrialized countries, can work because there is someone to replace them at home: domestic workers, a cheap and largely unrecognized service in Latin American society. Moreover, some sectors believe they have the right to discriminate against them and abuse them.
That is how Casimira Rodriguez, the 39-year-old single Justice Minister in the Bolivian Evo Morales government, describes the situation of domestic workers in Latin American countries who are subjected to offensive treatment and exhausting work days.
A simple woman, with a quiet voice dressed in traditional clothes, it is hard to imagine that Casimira is the tough woman who founded the Federation of Home Workers in Bolivia and later the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Domestic Workers (CONLACTRAHO) with branches in 14 countries.
During a trip to Lima to inaugurate the V CONLACTRAHO Assembly on April 28 Rodriguez offered an exclusive interview for ALC in which she said that in times of anguish and struggle the Bible was a powerful weapon of comfort and challenge.
"My principal influence was the Bible, the Word of God. The book of Psalms inspired me a great deal in difficult times and the texts of the New Testament, in particular the life of Jesus, helped me a great deal during times of confrontation and the struggle for justice," he said.
She said that she attended a Pentecostal Church but pulled out as she was pressured to opt between religion and the union. "One day I met a sister from the Methodist Church who was a leader of peasant farmer women. She told me that my spiritual life did not contradict my commitment to justice and from that point I began to attend the Methodist Church of Cochabamba," she said.
She said that the reflection workshops and seminars that the ecumenical group held with peasant farmer women "opened her eyes."
"It was like opening the curtain in a dark room," she said, when she realized that the discrimination she felt was the same that others experienced.
She then began her work to "evangelize" her companions, giving flyers to women who were sweeping outside the homes where they worked. "One day I gave a flyer to a domestic worker and she said: I don't know what it says here. That was a blow. I said I have to strengthen the organization," she recalled.
Today as a leader of domestic workers and a government minister, life has given her the opportunity to once again see many of the "bosses" who employed her and discriminated against her. "It is interesting; they have brought me into the living room, a place I was not allowed to set foot in when I worked for them. In fact, when I have met their children abroad they have taken me sightseeing," he said.
According to Casimira, despite the existing legislation in Latin America regarding domestic work, it is frequently not upheld. However, she said that there has been "some progress" from the national federations and the Latin American Confederation.
The discrimination she experienced as a domestic employee continues to threaten her. Some conservative Bolivian sectors have demanded she leave cabinet, arguing that she lacks experiences and the necessary legal knowledge to hold the position as Justice Minister.
Casimira worked for 18 years as a domestic worker, the argument wielded by the Bolivian Bar Association to call for her removal as the Anthropology Studies she did are not enough.
In 2003 she received the World Methodist Council Award, something that has also been granted people like Boris Trajkovsky, former president of Macedonia; Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa; Kofi Annan, general secretary of the United Nations and organizations like the San Egidio Community, which impelled peace in Mozambique and the Grandmothers in the Plaza de Mayo of Argentina.
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