VZCZCXRO1259
PP RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0170/01 0931252
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 021252Z APR 08
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8097
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 9230
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 3353
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 3106
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 2658
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 3763
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0710
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 2354
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 4061
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 8663
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEAWJC/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RHMFIUU/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHDC
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000170 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, INL, DRL 
DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR DS/IP/WHA, DS/IP/ITA, DS/T/ATA 
NSC FOR TOMASULO 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
USAID FOR LAC/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI KCRM SNAR ASEC BR
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS AND PUBLIC SECURITY CHALLENGES IN MATO GROSSO 
DO SUL STATE 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Mato Grosso do Sul's public security and human rights 
challenges are typical of those found in many Brazilian states 
today.  The state's geographic location, sharing an international 
border with Bolivia and Paraguay, however, creates an additional set 
of public policy tests for the state government.  These relatively 
open borders allow Mato Grosso do Sul to serve as a conduit for 
illicit trade in drugs, arms, trafficking in persons and pirated 
goods which in turn have increased the scope of organized crime in 
the state.  In addition to these external pressures, internally the 
state is already beset with a number of human rights issues such as 
protecting marginalized peoples and addressing poor prison 
conditions.  The situation in Mato Grosso do Sul highlights the 
number of problems at least one Brazilian state is confronting and 
demonstrates how economic growth, the country's current focus, is 
not resolving all of its social challenges.  End Summary. 
 
International Borders Create Public Security Challenges 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) During a March 3-6 visit by Poloff to Mato Grosso do Sul 
State, Jose Mandu, State Secretariat for Justice and Public Security 
(SEJUSP) Supervisor for Intelligence, highlighted the difficulties 
of working in a state with two international borders.  Mandu told 
Poloff that increasing foreign commercial activity has resulted in 
an expansion of cross-border crime.  This phenomenon has created law 
enforcement problems in all the state's border towns and has 
stretched to other areas throughout the state.  He gave the example 
of Ponta Pora (PP), across a land border from Pedro Juan Caballero, 
Paraguay.  PP is infamous for having one of Brazil's highest per 
capita murder rates which Mandu stated was a direct result of the 
regional drug trade.  Beyond murder, he said that stolen Brazilian 
vehicles are finding their way to Paraguayan purchasers and that 
proceeds from these car sales are then used to pay for drugs in 
Paraguay for re-sale throughout Brazil.  Finally, Mandu stated that 
beyond drugs, contraband and pirated products, particularly consumer 
goods, flow easily across the porous border, including small arms 
from Paraguay that are being sold in Brazil. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In addition to the illegal trade in drugs, arms, consumer 
goods and other contraband, the state is also a transit and source 
point for trafficking in persons.  According to Delasnieve Miranda 
Daspet de Souza, President of the Mato Grosso do Sul State Bar 
Association's (OAB-MS) Human Rights Commission "the state's 
geographic location leads it to be not only a center of drug trading 
but also a highway for trafficked persons entering Brazil from 
Bolivia and Paraguay." 
 
Prisons Focus 
------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) SEJUSP's Mandu claimed that aside from regional crime, the 
state faces a major domestic public security issue because of its 
poor prison infrastructure.  Besides unsanitary conditions, prison 
overcrowding is a serious concern, Mandu admitted.  He noted that 
the state plans on building two small penitentiaries this year and a 
mega-complex for both semi-open and traditional jail units for women 
and younger criminals as a first step.  Lack of staff support -- 
Mandu acknowledged the state employs only half of the total number 
of security guards it should have to ensure safety --  makes 
administration difficult and rehabilitation projects even more 
challenging.  (Comment: While Mandu stated that tight budgets 
resulted in the staffing shortage, rapid economic growth in Mato 
Grosso do Sul should increase tax receipts, which may help improve 
prisons in the long-term.  End Comment.)  A more serious issue 
arises when inmates belonging to gangs from other states are 
 
SAO PAULO 00000170  002 OF 003 
 
 
transferred to Mato Grosso do Sul and their followers create support 
networks within the state.  He said that when Sao Paulo's First 
Capital Command (PCC) criminal organization initiated a wave of 
violence during May 2006 in Sao Paulo State, the PCC's affiliates in 
Campo Grande participated locally through a prison uprising that 
burned down a penitentiary.  Mandu pointed to the 2007 creation of 
the intelligence center which he now heads as the key to preventing 
similar revolts.  (Note:  According to Mandu, the information hub is 
involved in not only stopping large-scale activites but also 
monitoring the PCC's "standard" crime including drug purchases and 
sales statewide.  nd Note.) 
 
¶5.  (SBU) During visits to the federa prison and the Penal 
Institute of Campo Grande,a state penitentiary, Poloff observed the 
vast dfferences between the two facilities: the first one 
well-maintained and the latter decrepit and rifewith human rights 
concerns.  According to Assistnt Warden of the state prison, 
Aurintheo de Olivira Pedreira Junior, the facility was built to 
hld 280 prisoners, yet because of lack of penitentiary space 
throughout the state, today houses 1085 inmates.  Only eight staff 
members are employed to administer the prison and maintain order, 
leading the warden and his subordinates to have to rely on prisoner 
informants to learn about inmate attitudes and potential escape or 
revolt plans, Pedreira said.  Pedreira showed Poloff cells that were 
meant to hold 6 inmates, where 45-60 had to reside in cramped and 
unsanitary conditions and in which prisoners had to take turns 
sleeping.  The limited space is partly due to a recent uprising in 
which inmates held several staff hostage and burned an area within 
the facility due to complaints about prison conditions.  The Penal 
Institute of Campo Grande contrasted starkly with the federal 
prison, one of only two such facilities in Brazil, both holding some 
of the country's most notorious criminals.  According to Federal 
Police Chief and prison warden Arcelino Vieira Damasceno, the 
facility was built a year and a half ago to house 210 inmates. 
Unlike its overcrowded state counterpart, it currently holds only 73 
inmates.  The clean and ultra-modern facility has the most high-tech 
security infrastructure available as opposed to rusting doors and no 
apparent camera recordings in the Penal Institute.  Lack of hygiene 
does not seem to be an issue in the federal facility, owing partly 
to the presence of a full-time physician and dentist, luxuries that 
do not exist in the state penitentiary. 
 
More Human Rights Problems 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Highlighting additional civil liberty concerns, OAB-MS 
Human Rights Commission President Souza relayed her anger about the 
length of time necessary to move a case through the judicial system. 
 The state only has a small number of judges who have to review an 
enormous number of proceedings.  When poor Brazilians cannot afford 
to post bail, they "rot" in the prisons, sometimes for several years 
while awaiting trial.  She added that in a February 2007 uprising in 
the overcrowded Agricultural Penal Colony of Campo Grande, a 
policeman's death led Governor Andre Puccinelli to announce a policy 
-- condemned by a range of local human rights groups -- of shooting 
first and asking questions later. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Paulo Angelo de Souza, President of the Marcal de Souza 
Center for Human Rights (CDHMS), highlighted other human rights 
problems in the state, including the struggle of the local gay, 
lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community.  Souza said that 
CDHMS is providing legal support for several former Campo Grande 
city government employees who believe they were fired from their 
jobs because of discrimination against them for being from the GLBT 
community.  He added that lack of police protection for homosexuals 
is an increasing problem in a city, which although largely 
conservative, has a growing number of people who are openly gay. 
Both OAB-MS's Souza and CDHMS's Souza also complained about police 
treatment particularly as it relates to the homeless.  According to 
both, in February 2008, a military police squad aggressively rounded 
 
SAO PAULO 00000170  003 OF 003 
 
 
up dozens of street dwellers, forced them into police vans and took 
them to a processing center far away from where they were located, 
interrogated them for being a public nuisance (though no criminal 
charges were brought), and then told the homeless that they would 
have to find their own way back. 
 
Afro-Brazilians Allege History of Mistreatment 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Leaders of the local Afro-Brazilian movement claimed that 
the state was taking little action to address racism.  Coordinator 
of State Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality Raimunda 
Luzia de Brito stated that throughout Mato Grosso do Sul, as in all 
of Brazil, blacks face discrimination and are treated as second 
class citizens.  The state government focuses on economic growth 
rather than social and racial policies, leaving Afro-Brazilians to 
"fend for themselves," she said.  Aleixo Paraguassu Netto, who runs 
an NGO that researches affirmative action policies and prepares 
minority and poor youth to take college entrance exams, said that 
civil society has had to step in where the government has failed to 
help raise the lives of the state's Afro-Brazilian community.  His 
NGO, the Luther King Institute (named after Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr.) has tried to highlight racism and discrimination repeatedly 
with a long line of successive state administrations and 
legislatures only to see little success in terms of measures seeking 
to address racial inequalities.  Antonio Borges dos Santos, 
president of the government's State Council on the Rights of the 
Black Population, said that while his organization works to defend 
Afro-Brazilian rights, he receives little support from higher-level 
decision-makers.  He stated that he believes the government is 
guilty of racism for limiting the council's budget and staff. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Mato Grosso do Sul State is enjoying significant economic 
growth due to its booming agricultural sector and high commodity 
prices for its products, especially soybeans.  Unfortunately, the 
state is also in the midst of transnational criminal problems as 
well as domestic concerns regarding how to deal with some basic 
human rights issues.  The set of challenges the state faces today -- 
including protecting prisoner and minority rights while at the same 
time combating drug and human trafficking -- is illustrative of the 
issues Brazil must address as it continues on its path to economic 
and democratic development.  End Comment. 
 
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