VZCZCXRO9683
RR RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0412/01 2121533
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301533Z JUL 08
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8424
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 9565
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 4161
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 8798
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 3221
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 3468
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 2746
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 2468
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 3880
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 1232

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SAO PAULO 000412 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, BARBARA FLECK 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF KCRM PHUM ELAB KTIP BR
SUBJECT: G/TIP LAGON VISIT TO SAO PAULO REVEALS BOTH PROGRESS AND 
PROBLEMS IN COMBATTING TIP 
 
REF:   A.  07 SAO PAULO 00958 
 ¶B.  08 SAO PAULO 00276 
 ¶C.  08 BRASILIA  00962 
 ¶D.  08 RIO DE JANEIRO 00172 
 
Summary 
 
¶1. (SBU) Ambassador-at-Large Mark P. Lagon, Director of the State 
Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons 
(G/TIP), visited Sao Paulo on June 26-27 as part of a multi-city 
trip to Brazil.  Ambassador Lagon met with both federal and 
state-level members of the judicial and law enforcement communities 
to discuss the challenges to combating trafficking in persons (TIP) 
in Brazil.  He also conversed with members of the NGO community on 
issues involving forced labor and sexual exploitation.  While most 
interlocutors agreed that the situation is improving in Brazil, they 
are still frustrated by the lack of implementation of existing laws 
and the way that Brazilians, in general, still do not see TIP as a 
major problem.  Ambassador Lagon's message got a far more friendly 
reception from law enforcement reps in Sao Paulo than it received 
from some national level officials in Brasilia (Ref C).  End 
Summary. 
 
Legal Impediments to Combating TIP 
 
¶2. (SBU) Discussions with federal and state law enforcement and 
judicial officials revealed a number of problems with the Brazilian 
legal system that make it difficult to combat trafficking in persons 
(TIP).  Although representatives initially agreed that, on a macro 
level, they had sufficient legal support to fight TIP, deeper 
discussions soon revealed that there were serious gaps in the legal 
underpinnings for these efforts.  Marcia Heloisa Mendoza Ruiz, Sao 
Paulo Police Chief at the Department of Homicide and Protection of 
the Individual, stated that she did not have sufficient legal 
support under the existing laws to pursue seriously the cases she 
had under investigation.  Of the 21 cases of forced labor she was 
currently investigating, all the accused were free on bail and 
therefore free to potentially intimidate their accusers.  She 
lamented that she had no way to keep the accused in custody under 
the existing legal structure.  Ruiz also noted that undocumented 
migrants from Paraguay and Bolivia are terribly exploited in 
sweatshops in Sao Paolo, and routinely deported.  Ruiz added that 
sex trafficking victims in Sao Paulo are both male and female, 
adults and minors.  In Sao Paulo's brothels, both female and male 
victims can be found while on the streets, victims are typically 
women and transvestites, and are often subjected to physical abuse. 
Ruiz finds it extremely difficult to rely on victim cooperation or 
testimony to build her cases as victims usually choose to protect 
their traffickers, and refuse police or NGO assistance.  Most of her 
investigations are corroborated through wiretap evidence. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Steven Shuniti Zwicker, Federal Prosecutor, concurred with 
Ruiz'views.  He added that Brazilian law does not provide sufficient 
benefits or protections to TIP victims to encourage them to testify 
against their accusers.  Women forced into both prostitution and 
drug trafficking have little protection from their former 
traffickers if they decide to testify against them.  Zwicker 
concluded there is virtually no incentive for a victim to testify 
given that, unlike in the U.S., the victim cannot plea bargain her 
potential prostitution/drug trafficking conviction into a lesser 
sentence in exchange for her testimony.  Thus, a victim who would 
report her trafficker to the police risks her life and receives no 
benefit in terms of her own charges and exposure to jail time. 
Zwicker also indicated that there are legal difficulties with 
assisting a TIP victim if he or she is in the country illegally. 
Currently Brazil lacks sufficient legal or statutory instruments for 
protecting undocumented foreign TIP victims from deportation.  In 
addition, Brazil lacks a sufficient protection network on labor 
trafficking cases, and Bolivian labor victims, for example, often 
turn up in other sweatshops shortly after rescue.  In response to a 
question from Ambassador Lagon, Zwicker noted that the GOB typically 
finds it difficult to work with statistics, or developing a database 
on criminal cases.  Ruiz diagnosed the GOB's problem as failing to 
organize its anti-trafficking efforts properly.  Ambassador Lagon 
suggested possibly arranging a visitor program to the US for 
Brazilian law enforcement officials or organizing digital video 
conferences (DVCs) among officials from Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and 
Washington, DC.  Roundtable participants agreed such initiatives 
would be worthwhile. 
 
SAO PAULO 00000412  002 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Fabio Ramazzini Becharra, Assistant to the Sao Paulo State 
Attorney General , mentioned that most legal cases that could/should 
be treated as "classic trafficking in persons cases" were often 
prosecuted under other laws.  Because it is so difficult to prove 
TIP and because most victims will not testify out of fear or lack of 
incentives, most TIP cases are prosecuted under anti-money 
laundering initiatives or tax-evasion statutes.  Becharra cited the 
example of a famous Sao Paulo brothel known for catering to high 
society clientele.  The owner was well known and had even made 
appearances on local TV talk shows advertising his "men's club" and 
bragging about his lucrative business which earned profits of R30 
million per year (approximately 19.2 million USD at current exchange 
rates).  When the brothel was finally closed, the owner was not 
prosecuted under any TIP or sexual exploitation laws, but was 
instead held for money laundering and tax evasion.   Ruiz agreed 
with Becharra's assessment but added that, when she asks for 
financial records in an attempt to combat TIP under money laundering 
and tax-evasion laws, she is often stymied by judges who deny her 
access to this information. 
 
¶5. (SBU) All of the law enforcement and judicial representatives 
agreed that there was a lack of information flow on trafficking 
cases among federal, state and municipal governments.  During a 
meeting with Ricardo Filippi Pecoraro, Officer in Charge at the 
Federal Police office at Guarulhos International Airport, Pecoraro 
complained about the absence of interagency cooperation.  He 
lamented that Brazil's law enforcement agencies do not have a 
tradition of working together.  He noted the lack of inter-agency 
task forces and stated that while the federal police and the federal 
prosecutors worked together well in Sao Paulo, he did not believe 
this was the case in other cities.  Pecoraro added that more than 
100,000 travelers pass through Guarulhos daily, and he lacks 
sufficient personnel to identify victims.  He has worked on one 
large "trafficking" case which involved counterfeit passports. 
(Comment: Pecoraro didn't appear to recognize the distinctions 
between alien smuggling and trafficking-in-persons offenses.  End 
Comment.) 
 
¶6.  (SBU) In a separate meeting, Becharra expanded on Pecoraro's 
statements claiming that Brazil did not understand the issue of 
trafficking on a "national level," or from a cultural standpoint, 
particularly in terms of victim assistance.  He added that he did 
not see the GOB making TIP a priority, and therefore there was not 
enough legal or social service support to truly fight it and to help 
and treat victims.  Furthermore, Becharra said the GOB lacked an 
understanding of how TIP may be directly connected to other 
crimessuch as money laundering, drug trafficking, and other 
offenses.  Subsequent meetings with Luiz Antonio Marrey, Sao Paulo 
State Secretary of Justice and Jose Gregori, former Federal Minister 
of Justice and President of the Municipal Commission for Human 
Rights, reinforced this conclusion.    Marrey also pointed out that 
trafficking crimes tend to be overlooked by the government as "not 
so serious," when compared to widespread problems with gangs, guns, 
and violent crime.  While Brazilian laws against human trafficking 
could be more stringent, he said, there was no point in enacting 
tougher laws if there was no overall commitment by the society to 
combat the problem.  Marrey added that on a municipal level, he 
believed many local leaders in Sao Paulo State and in other regions 
are complicit with TIP and use forced labor in their own businesses. 
 According to Marrey, the sexual exploitation of minors in 
prostitution simply could not take place without the complicity of 
local police (sometimes even as customers).  Police corruption is 
worse on the state level; federal forces have a higher degree of 
professionalism, Marrey concluded. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Marrey also discussed the problem of sexual tourism in 
Brazil, and how tourists from Portugal, Spain, and Italy (among 
other countries) travel to northeast Brazil to engage in commercial 
sexual exploitation.  Brazilian male prostitutes also are in high 
demand by such tourists.  He stated that Brazil needs to educate the 
public about TIP and related crimes and enforce existing laws.  On a 
more positive note, Gregori affirmed that while there were still 
significant TIP/human rights issues in Brazil, in his opinion, "the 
country is moving in the right direction" by signing the Palermo 
protocol and investigating existing cases.  He also opined that 
Brazil's development of ethanol will be followed up with a concern 
for protecting human rights.  Ambassador Lagon thanked Marrey and 
Gregori for meeting with him, and pledged to "raise up (did he mean 
 
SAO PAULO 00000412  003 OF 004 
 
 
"support," and if so, how?  -- with funding, tech assistance, 
training?) what Sao Paulo is doing" to fight human trafficking. 
 
 Small Victories in Combating Forced Labor 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Meetings with NGOs reinforced Post's view that forced 
labor continues to be an issue within Brazil and that efforts to 
combat it vary significantly by region and sector.   Leonardo 
Sakamoto, Coordinator of Reporter Brasil, stated that while forced 
labor continues principally in the cattle, charcoal, soy, and cotton 
sectors (Reftel A), in addition to timber, corn, sugar cane, fruit, 
and palm tree sectors, Reporter Brasil had noticed some improvements 
as well as continuing concerns.  Sakamoto spoke of the "tripod" 
necessary for forced labor to take place:  poverty, greed, and 
impunity.  Brazil combats forced labor through three main 
mechanisms:  labor prosecutions, the "Dirty List," and the National 
Pact to Eradicate Slave Labor.  Criminal prosecutions and trials in 
Brazil, however, are very slow, taking an average of four to six 
years to complete.  Convictions and jail-time sentences are 
difficult to obtain and uphold on appeal, especially of landowners. 
Nonetheless, the number of forced labor prosecutions and trials 
appears to be increasing in Brazil. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The cattle industry is an example where increased 
production in more remote areas lends itself to possible TIP 
violations.  However, many ranches with a direct link to consumers 
(JBS, Carrefour, Pao de Azucar) have made a noteworthy improvement 
in their practices.   Government labor inspectors have rescued 
substantial numbers of workers from cattle ranches over the past 
year.  Sakamoto related the story of a slave labor victim in Para 
who complained about poor working conditions. The landowner said to 
the victim: "Here the law is me" and then branded the victim. 
Sakamoto noted that a number of large companies (Bunge, Cargill, 
ADM) are consulting the "Dirty List" (Reft A) before purchasing from 
independently owned farms or calling Reporter Brasil directly to 
ensure that forced labor is not used in their supply chain (Texaco 
and Exxon). 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Sakamoto noted that the National Pact to Eradicate Slave 
Labor contains anti-slavery commitments from more than 100 companies 
in Brazil, whose financial worth represents 22 percent of Brazil's 
GDP.  According to Sakamoto, "this pact is changing the way 
investors are doing business."  When asked about trends in the pig 
iron, charcoal and sugar cane industries, Sakamoto stated that, at 
this time, it is very difficult to determine if conditions are 
improving, worsening or staying the same.  While individual 
companies have made improvements, other companies are taking no 
action at all and the situation is expanding and worsening in some 
regions.  Reporter Brasil is working to develop a new index by which 
to measure conditions in these sectors.  Sakamoto also noted that a 
constitutional amendment to allow the expropriation of property in 
cases where slave labor is used is back on the House floor after 
failing passage in 2004 (Ref A). 
 
¶11. (SBU) Paulo Illes, Coordinator of the Center for Support of the 
Migrant (CAMI), also noted during an NGO roundtable lunch the small 
victories in NGO and government efforts to combat the use of 
Bolivian forced labor in the textile industry (Refs A, B).  After 
ascertaining that a number of the textile sweatshops in the City of 
Sao Paulo were operated by Korean nationals, CAMI alerted the Korean 
Embassy and met with the owners of twelve such shops.  Korean 
interlocutors were initially skeptical, indicating that Bolivian 
victims were accustomed to such conditions based on "cultural 
traditions."  However, a minimum standard for working conditions was 
eventually negotiated with the owners, and the City of Sao Paulo is 
now using these standards as the basis for new recommendations for 
work conditions in the industry.  Despite the responsiveness of the 
local government on this issue, Illes lamented that most Bolivian 
workers still hesitate to come forward and complain of their 
miserable working conditions because they would face job loss, fines 
and potential deportation by the GOB. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Illes indicated that Brazil should amend its immigration 
laws to protect undocumented trafficking victims from deportation, 
and said that developing a system where migrants can obtain legal 
status as registered workers would provide better protection against 
exploitation.  Other NGO participants noted additional concerns 
about the GOB's anti-trafficking efforts, such as failure to 
implement the national anti-trafficking plan.  Moreover, certain 
 
SAO PAULO 00000412  004 OF 004 
 
 
states and cities with high numbers of trafficking victims (for 
example, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Para, and 
Pernambuco) are ahead of the federal government and are pushing the 
federal government forward on this issue.  In Sao Paulo, 146 
trafficking victims have been identified this year, and a 
significant number of criminal cases are pending.  However, the 
greatest challenge to successful prosecution is "bringing the 
judicial branch over."  Prosecution efforts have suffered from a 
lack of specific anti-trafficking laws, and judges use legal 
loopholes to avoid imposing significant prison terms on traffickers. 
 In addition, cultural issues such as victims not recognizing 
themselves as victims and regarding traffickers as "heroes" impede 
progress.  Maria do Socorro N. da Silva, Service for Marginalized 
Women, indicated that the tourism industry had signed a code of 
conduct against child sex tourism in 2006, but minors are still 
sexually exploited in a number of hotels.  She stated that a 
certification system without an inspection mechanism doesn't work, 
and that greater measures need to be taken against child sex 
tourism. 
 
Differing Goals Stymies Information Flow between the Police and NGOs 
 
 
¶13.  (SBU) During our meeting with Marcia Ruiz, Ruiz expressed her 
disappointment with the lack of information flow from local TIP NGO, 
ASBRAD (Brazilian Association for the Defense of Women and Youth). 
She stated that the number of TIP victims who return to Brazil is 
probably significantly higher than statistics show and that ASBRAD, 
an NGO that assists suspected TIP victims as they enter Guarulhos 
Airport, should be providing the police with more information. In 
our subsequent meeting with Dalila Figueredo, President of ASBRAD, 
she disagreed with Ruiz.  ASBRAD's job, she said, was to win the 
victim's trust.  An ASBRAD connection to the police could undermine 
that bond.  She affirmed that ASBRAD would always support 
trafficking victims if they choose to report to the police, but that 
ASBRAD will not report on the victim's behalf.  On a more positive 
note, she stated that her hesitation to go to the police was not for 
fear of police corruption and stated that in Sao Paulo, at least, 
she thought the police force was trustworthy in TIP cases. 
 
Comment: Real Progress, But Challenges Remain 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Despite the commentary and the clear frustration of some 
of the interlocutors with the Brazilian legal system and the 
impediments to combating TIP, nearly all participants noted progress 
being made by Brazil. They indicated that the 2004 signing of the 
Palermo Protocol elevated the issue of TIP on the national agenda, 
and that slowly public officials and the populace at large are 
learning about the problems TIP can cause.  While greater 
enforcement of existing anti-TIP laws and increased public awareness 
are essential, most interviewees indicated that anti-TIP measures 
had improved during their tenure working in the field. 
 
Comment: Brasilia vs. Sao Paulo 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Ambassador Lagon's visit was generally well-received by 
Brazilian state and local officials and NGO representatives. 
Nonetheless, there was a clear difference between the reception in 
Sao Paulo and that in Brasilia (Ref C).  In Sao Paulo, Brazilian law 
enforcement officials were open to continued dialogue with the U.S. 
In contrast, in Brasilia some GOB officials told Ambassador Lagon 
they were insulted by U.S. anti-TIP activities in Brazil and that 
DHS's request for assistance in following up on allegations of the 
use of forced labor in the charcoal/pig iron production chain was 
"an imposition on Brazil's sovereignty." 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Overall, TIP offers the USG an excellent opportunity for 
improved bilateral cooperation on human trafficking issues.  Post is 
exploring ways to get the Brazilian Sao Paulo/law enforcement 
perspective on TIP better understood by some officials in the 
capital.  End Comment. 
 
STORY