Hundreds of police storm Brazilian slums (PHOTOS)

 

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/brazil-slum-raid-rio-420/

Brazilian policemen deploy to pacify Jacarezinho shantytown, known as "Crackland", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.(AFP Photo / Christophe Simon)

Brazilian troops and police swept through Rio’s most infamous slums in a pre-dawn raid, backed up by helicopters and tanks. The “pacification” mission is intended to bring the crime-ridden favelas to heel before the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

Over 2,000 troops participated in the crack operation in the northern favelas of Jacarezinho and Manguinhos. They began moving through the shanty towns at 5:00 am local time, searching houses and making arrests.

The slums are renowned for the trafficking of crack cocaine and weapons, which police confiscated during the operation. Despite the favelas’ reputations, police said that the raid went without a hitch.

Around 800 officers entered into the favelas flanked by armored vehicles while the rest patrolled the perimeter.

Brazilian policemen deploy by a barrage set ablaze by traffickers, as they deploy to pacify Jacarezinho shantytown, known as "Crackland", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.(AFP Photo / Christophe Simon)

CORE civilian police tactical unit personnel inspects a homeless man during a deployment to pacify the Manguinhos and Jacarezinho shantytowns, known as "Crackland", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.(AFP Photo / Christophe Simon)

“The situation is very calm, there have been no incidents,” Colonel Federico Caldas, head of public relations for the military police, to Globo News. “At the moment we are carrying out a meticulous search for drugs and weapons.”

He went onto say that the police will continue to maintain a presence in the area and hope to construct a "pacification unit" in the slums by the end of the year.

The shanty town's inhabitants watched on as officers patrolled the streets for the first time in decades.

“I think that it’s great that peace has finally arrived in Jacarezinho,” said 35-year-old Paulo Cesar, on his way to church.

Around 75,000 people inhabit Jacarezinho and Manguinhos, slums recognized as Rio's most dangerous. Drug trafficking is rife in the favelas, where the trading of crack cocaine is an everyday activity.

The Sunday operation included members of a municipal organization that fights crack addiction; its workers took around 70 people to rehabilitation centers.

A paramilitary police helicopter overflies the area during a police deployment to pacify the Manguinhos and Jacarezinho shantytowns, known as "Crackland", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.(AFP Photo / Christophe Simon)

­Paving the way for ‘pacification’

Rio’s elite police force killed five suspected drug cartel bosses in a nearby neighborhood on Saturday and mounted a search for another ten. According to police figures, criminal activity in the favelas has fallen by 60 per cent because of the increased police activity.

The “pacification” project was launched in 2008 with a view to improving city security ahead of the 2016 Olympics. Thus far the authorities have installed 29 "police pacification units" and aim to have 40 in place by 2014.

Although the pacification operation has largely been praised for establishing law and order in Rio's crime-ridden areas, which had previously been controlled by armed drug cartels, in some areas there have been complaints of police corruption and abuses.

A Brazilian marine armoured AAV7 Amphibious Assault Vehicle giving support to police blocks a street during a deployment to pacify the Manguinhos and Jacarezinho shantytowns, known as "Crackland", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.(AFP Photo / Christophe Simon)

A BOPE paramilitary police elite unit officer sits on the back of a pickup during a police deployment to pacify the Manguinhos and Jacarezinho shantytowns, known as "Crackland", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.(AFP Photo / Christophe Simon)

Crack (L) and cocaine apprehended during a police deployment to pacify the Manguinhos and Jacarezinho shantytowns, known as "Crackland", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.(AFP Photo / Christophe Simon)

Seeds of doubt: Brazilian farmers sue Monsanto

Machines lined up before harvesting soybeans at a farm in Tangara da Serra in Cuiaba, Brazil (Reuters / Paulo Whitaker)

Source: Russia Today
http://www.rt.com/news/monsanto-brazil-seed-soy-908/

Five million Brazilian farmers are locked in a lawsuit with US-based biotech giant Monsanto, suing for as much as 6.2 billion euros. They say that the genetic-engineering company has been collecting royalties on crops it unfairly claims as its own.

The farmers claim that Monsanto unfairly collects exorbitant profits every year worldwide on royalties from “renewal” seed harvests. “Renewal” crops are those that have been planted using seed from the previous year’s harvest. While the practice of renewal farming is an ancient one, Monsanto disagrees, demanding royalties from any crop generation produced from its genetically-engineered seed. Because the engineered seed is patented, Monsanto not only charges an initial royalty on the sale of the crop produced, but a continuing 2 per cent royalty on every subsequent crop, even if the farmer is using a later generation of seed.

"Monsanto gets paid when it sell the seeds. The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again). Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production," Jane Berwanger, lawyer for the farmers told the Associated Press reports.

In the latest installment of the legal battle erupting in South America, the Brazilian court has ruled in favor of the Brazilian farmers, saying Monsanto owes them at least US$2 billion paid since 2004. Monsanto, however, has appealed the decision and the case is ongoing.

In essence, Monsanto argues that once a farmer buys their seed, they have to pay the global bio-tech giant a yearly fee in perpetuity – with no way out.

At stake is Brazil’s highly profitable and ever growing soybean production. Last year, Brazil was the world's second producer and exporter of soybean behind the United States, according to the AFP report. The crops can be used for anything from animal feed to bio fuel, and worldwide demand is growing.

Genetically engineered soy first appeared illegally in Brazil in the 1990’s, smuggled in from neighboring Argentina. The Brazilian farmers found the seed attractive despite the ban in place from the Brazilian authorities because Monsanto had specifically designed the seed to be resistant to its own immensely powerful and popular herbicide Roundup.

When used in tandem, the strong herbicide will kill the weeds while allowing the soy crops to grow unimpeded. After the ban was lifted, genetically modified seed flooded the Brazilian market, and now 85 per cent of the Brazilian soy crop is genetically-engineered. Soy has been extremely successful in Brazil, currently making up 26 per cent of the country’s farm exports last year and netting Brazil a total of $24.1 billion, according to AP. However, Brazil’s farmers were apparently unaware there would be a heavy price to pay.

To make a deal with Monsanto is to make a deal with a company that is one the most powerful and pervasive food giants in the world. It is the world’s number one seed developer, and its patented genes have been inserted into 95 per cent of all American soy, and 80 per cent of all American corn crops. Monsanto has repeatedly levied large damage suits against independent farmers that have unknowingly or unwittingly used their seed.

And Monsanto’s reach goes far beyond agriculture.

Monsanto is also the world’s largest manufacturer of synthetic bovine growth hormone, injected into cows in order to stimulate greater milk production. The widespread pressure by the company to use the chemical and the subsequent measures taken by Monsanto to suppress information regarding the potential health risks sparked uproar among American farmers.

When dairy producers that did not use Monsanto’s products began labeling their products as “Hormone Free” or “Organic”, Monsanto slapped them with a lawsuit as recently as 2008, claiming the labels amounted to negative advertising against hormone-produced milk.

Director of corporate communications for Monsanto, Phil Angell, summed up Monsanto’s take on the issue in a report by food author Michael Pollan for New York Times Magazine in 1998: "Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is FDA's job.”