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Raid uncovers suspected slavery operation in Brazil

Preliminary findings show an ethanolmaker kept 1, 108 workers in horrendous conditions.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 4, 2007

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazilian authorities said they raided an Amazon plantation where more than 1, 000 laborers were found working 13-hour days, in horrendous conditions, cutting sugar cane for ethanol production.

Authorities said that if preliminary findings by investigators are confirmed, the raid would be Brazil's biggest to date against debt slavery, which is common in the Amazon.

Under the practice, poor laborers are lured to remote spots where they rack up debts to plantation owners charging exorbitant prices for everything from food to transportation.

But the Amazon plantation's owner - the biggest ethanol producer in the northeastern state of Para - vigorously denied the allegations Tuesday and said the workers make good money by Brazilian standards.

The raid took place in the remote town of Ulianopolis, where authorities discovered the workers a week ago, Brazil's Justice Ministry said in a statement. The company said the raid began Friday and lasted three days.

Police found 1, 108 poor workers working from 4:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. with only a short break for lunch, the statement said. They complained of paying exorbitant prices for food and medicine.

Many were sick from spoiled food or unsafe water, slept in cramped quarters on hammocks and did not have proper sanitation facilities, Humberto Celio, coordinator of the Labor Ministry's special unit that frees debt slaves, told the government news service Agencia Brasil.

The company, Para Pastoril e Agricola SA, has been in operation since 1969. A Para Pastoril executive called allegations of abuse "totally false."

"We have never had these type of problems, " said executive Fernao Zancaner.

The company has 1, 800 employees, he said. Sugar cane cutters receive $368 to $421 a month, far above the nation's minimum wage of $200. In the Amazon region, many workers make less than the minimum.

[Last modified July 4, 2007, 01:27:29]