VZCZCXRO1760
PP RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0119/01 0711237
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 111237Z MAR 08 ZDK
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7990
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 9133
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 3337
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 3089
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 2642
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 3747
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0694
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 2338
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 4037
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 8631
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000119 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, WHA/USOAS, WHA/PDA AND DRL 
NSC FOR TOMASULO 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
USAID FOR LAC/AA 
DOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958 
TAGS: PHUM SCUL SOCI BR
SUBJECT: QUILOMBO COMMUNITIES SERVE AS MODERN-DAY REMINDER OF 
BRAZIL'S SLAVERY PAST 
 
REF: A) 07 Sao Paulo 895 B) 07 Sao Paulo 976 C) 07 Sao Paulo 1002 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) As Brazil enjoys economic prosperity and growth, the 
plight of the Brazilian quilombos highlights that racial and income 
inequality persists.  Although founded centuries ago, these 
communities of Afro-Brazilian slave descendants still serve as an 
important part of the country's legacy of slavery and the fight the 
Afro-Brazilian community wages for equal treatment today.  While 
quilombos, poor and without representation, maintain their fight to 
get government recognition and benefits, landowners wage a battle to 
encroach on these communities' borders.  As the disparity between 
urban rich and rural poor continues to widen, the government cannot 
afford to overlook quilombos as an integral part of its process of 
racial and economic integration.  End Summary. 
 
Background on Quilombos 
----------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Brazil's quilombos were communities created by escaped 
slaves and free-born Afro-Brazilians away from colonial urban 
centers and white-owned plantations.  The quilombos represented 
communities where African descendants, as well as some indigenous 
Brazilians and even a few white Brazilians, lived in a free and 
self-governing society until Brazil abolished slavery in 1888. 
Brazil's most famous quilombo, Palmares, is located in Serra da 
Barriga, Alagoas State.  Founded in approximately 1605 (scholars 
disagree on the exact date), the community of ten small townships 
reached a population of 20,000-30,000 but was destroyed by 
Portuguese colonial government militias in 1694.  The leader of the 
community, Zumbi dos Palmares, is recognized today as a hero and 
legend in the Afro-Brazilian community.  Zumbi was killed on 
November 20, 1695 and Brazil's annual Black Consciousness Day is 
celebrated every November 20 in his honor.  Today's quilombos are 
usually found in the form of small rural towns that are inhabited by 
mostly Afro-Brazilian descendants of the original founders.  The 
quilombos represent the memory of Brazil's long history of slavery 
and provide a cultural link to the various African nations from 
which Portuguese colonists imported slaves. 
 
¶3.  (U) Most quilombolas, residents of quilombos, work today raising 
subsistence crops or making handicrafts.  The communities face 
serious challenges in health, infrastructure and education. 
Research indicates that the standard of living in quilombos is among 
the poorest in the country when compared with other Brazilian 
communities, rural or urban.  Central government statistics indicate 
that the majority of quilombola families rely on money distributed 
through national social programs.  In 2003, several federal 
organizations conducted a survey within 144 quilombo communities and 
found that 87.5 percent of their inhabitants were relying on public 
pensions, and of this figure, 48 percent also received assistance 
from other social programs.  On Black Consciousness Day in 2007, 
President Lula announced the "Social Agenda for Quilombolas" Program 
which would include a three-year USD 1.2 billion plan to provide 
electricity and funding for cultural activities to quilombos.   The 
government is also considering expanding its stipend program and 
infrastructure support for many of these communities. 
 
Differences Over Defining Quilombos 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) As part of its broad calls for reform throughout Brazil, 
the Constitution of 1988 aimed to bring a measure of social justice 
to the Afro-descendent community after years of neglect.  One of the 
Constitution's methods for achieving this goal was to guarantee land 
ownership to descendents of the original quilombos.  While a major 
achievement for some sectors of the Afro-Brazilian community - an 
overwhelming majority live in cities and towns rather than in these 
rural outposts - the land recognition process for a quilombo remains 
 
SAO PAULO 00000119  002 OF 003 
 
 
slow and politically challenging.  President Lula's government has 
pledged to focus on this issue as part of its larger plan to create 
policies encouraging the development of the greater Afro-Brazilian 
community. 
 
¶5.  (U) According to the NGO Pro Indian Commission of Sao Paulo, an 
organization that is active in both indigenous and quilombo rights, 
the Government of Brazil officially recognizes 82 areas throughout 
the country as quilombos.  The number is significantly smaller than 
a Brazilian Institute of Geographic Statistics (IBGE) 2000 survey 
finding the existence of 743 quilombos and a University of Brasilia 
(UnB) 2005 study that found 2,228 quilombos in Brazil. (The UnB 
estimates that 2 million quilombolas are living in areas claimed as 
quilombos today.)  The Palmares Cultural Foundation, the government 
agency responsible for supporting Afro-Brazilian history, recognizes 
1170 quilombos.  Discrepancies arise about the actual number of 
quilombos due to the fact that many communities describe themselves 
as such, as opposed to waiting for the slow and lengthy government 
recognition process.  UnB researchers also believe that the number 
of quilombos grew following the 1988 constitutional provisions 
because many non-quilombolas moved into the communities to gain land 
ownership rights.  The main difficulty in recognizing a community is 
proving that an area was in fact a quilombo in the past, defining 
its boundaries, and identifying the actual descendents of the 
original population.  The process involves historical and geographic 
research, anthropological analysis, and physical evidence, usually 
taking a number of years.  (Comment: Interlocutors informed Poloff 
that the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform (INCRA), 
the agency charged with recognizing quilombos, was much more 
efficient during the administration of President Fernando Henrique 
Cardoso (1995-2002), spurred by the 1988 Constitution and the 
government's efforts to begin pursuing racial equality programs, as 
opposed to the current presidency of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva 
("Lula") despite his repeated calls for racial equality and his more 
populist rhetoric on the issue.  End Comment.) 
 
Opposition Muddles Quilombo Recognition Process 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) In 2003, President Lula signed a decree designed to 
streamline the quilombo recognition process.  In one of this 
presidential declaration's more controversial provisions, the order 
accepts self-proclaimed declarations of ancestry as meeting the 
requisite proof for land ownership as long as the Palmares Cultural 
Foundation certifies.  The intent of the presidential decree was to 
facilitate the quilombo land rights process, but instead it created 
significant resistance from rural landowners, backed by strong 
congressional interest.  These mostly large-scale farmers, almost 
exclusively not of African-descent, perceived that any ownership 
claim over productive land could threaten some of their own 
properties or areas for potential expansion.  The Democratic Party 
(DEM), supported by many of these rural landowners, presented an 
appeal against the presidential decree to the Superior Federal 
Tribunal (STF) contesting its constitutionality and a bill undoing 
the executive order in the Chamber of Deputies.  Recognizing 
opposition to the decree, the government stepped back in 2007 and 
made some changes in the way the Palmares Foundation would issue 
certification of quilombolan descendent.  According to the 2007 
modifications, a majority vote within the quilombo must support an 
individual's claim of quilombola descent for the Foundation even to 
consider the case.  Unsatisfied by the alteration, the DEM bloc 
continues to press with its STF appeal and House legislation. 
 
Comment 
------ 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Throughout Brazil's history, quilombos represented 
bastions of freedom for African descendants who united to act in 
opposition to and at times armed revolt against the cruelty of 
slavery.  Today, quilombos serve not only as a reminder of this sad 
legacy and courageous resistance, but as a symbol of the 
inequalities found between Afro-Brazilians and their white 
neighbors.  The Brazilian Government will have to confront the 
 
SAO PAULO 00000119  003 OF 003 
 
 
political and economic inequality found in these communities in 
order that the entire Brazilian society reaps the benefits of the 
current economic expansion.  End Summary. 
 
¶8.  (U) This cable was coordinated with and cleared by Embassy 
Brasilia. 
 
WHITE