VZCZCXRO3575
RR RUEHGH RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0018/01 0091735
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091735Z JAN 09
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8863
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0011
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 4278
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 8977
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 3379
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 3626
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 2834
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 2626
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 4035
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 0865
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0403
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0480
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0503
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0017
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 3244
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000018 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, INL, DRL, G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF KCRM PHUM ELAB KTIP BR
SUBJECT:  BRAZIL MAKES PROGRESS AGAINST TIP 
 
REF: A. 08 Sao Paulo 276  B. 08 Brasilia 962 
¶C. 08 Sao Paulo 678 
 
UNCLASSIFIED 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  The year 2008 saw continued improvement in the 
fight against Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in Brazil.  Despite 
prickly reactions to U.S. pressure, as evidenced by discussions 
between U.S. and Brazilian officials during a June G/TIP visit 
(Reftels A and B), the fight against human trafficking expanded into 
new areas as a result of growing cooperation on anti-TIP initiatives 
by federal, state and local governments.  In addition, Brazil is 
seeing increased attention to TIP in academic circles and a rise in 
promising anti-TIP public-private partnerships.  A bottom-up 
approach to anti-TIP efforts in Brazil holds promise for additional 
progress as we use grant monies and information programs to 
reinforce the positive anti-TIP networks that the Brazilians are 
developing.  End Summary. 
 
MOMENTUM IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TIP 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶2.  (U) The GOB is paying closer attention to TIP at the federal, 
state and local levels.  Brazil was the site of a number of 
anti-trafficking conferences in late-2008 hosted by both government 
officials and NGO's: 
 
--In November, Justice Secretary, Romeu Tuma Junior hosted the 
"First International Seminar on Irregular Migration and TIP" in 
Brasilia.  The conference exposed government and law enforcement 
officials to European TIP investigation methods. 
 
--Also in November, Rio de Janeiro hosted the "Third World Congress 
Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents."  A 
coalition of NGO's and GOB agencies including the Ministries of 
Justice, Health, Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Social Development, 
Tourism and Education sponsored the conference, which attracted high 
level guests (septel on event forthcoming).  Among the panelists and 
3,000 conference attendees was Dilma Rousseff, potential 
Presidential candidate for Brazil's 2010 elections and current Chief 
of Staff to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.  Governors and 
governor's representatives from the states of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, 
Sergipe, Para, Goias, Amazonas, Roraima, Rondonia, Mato Grosso and 
Alagoas also attended. 
 
--In December, the State of Sao Paulo hosted its own conference on 
TIP entitled "Forming a Network to Confront Trafficking in Persons 
and the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents," where 
Consulate General Poloff made a presentation of U.S. TIP policies 
and announced G/TIP's grants.  Consulate participation was well 
received by participants, who fully support the strong USG position 
on this issue (Ref C). 
 
BRAZIL DEVELOPS TIP DATABASE / ANTI-TIP CENTERS 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3.  (U) With the support of the Justice Secretary, Brazil has 
established a national database on TIP.  At the Sao Paulo Anti-TIP 
conference, Mauricio Correo of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) 
announced that the database would track both victim and trafficker 
information with a goal of profiling traffickers and, ultimately, 
attacking the source of TIP profits (Reftel C). 
 
¶4.  (U) As part of the MOJ's National Plan for Public Security and 
Citizenship (Pronasci), the Ministry established two anti-TIP 
centers in Rio de Janeiro and Recife and plans to open additional 
anti-TIP centers in Sao Paulo, Para and Goias states.  Each center 
provides victims with assistance and develops local policies for 
combating TIP in its region.  These facilities, generally located in 
or near a high crime or at-risk area, have the support of the local 
police force and community leaders.  A social worker, psychologist 
and legal consultant staff each center. 
 
FEDERAL AND STATE COOPERATION ON THE RISE 
 
SAO PAULO 00000018  002 OF 003 
 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶5.  (U) At the Sao Paulo anti-TIP conference, state officials 
announced a new anti-TIP advertising campaign funded by the MOJ, the 
Ministry of Tourism and the Sao Paulo State Secretariat of Justice 
and Citizen's Defense.  The campaign, set to kick-off this month, 
targets at-risk populations (especially the traditional 
Afro-Brazilian settlements known as Quilombos) and the many truck 
and taxi-drivers that ply the nation's highways and are often 
associated with trafficking (Reftel C). In press reports, Justice 
Secretary Romeu Tuma Junior announced that while this program starts 
in Sao Paulo, he plans to expand it to other states to strengthen 
the national fight against TIP. 
THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY STARTS TO TAKE ON TIP 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶6.  (U) TIP is garnering increasing interest from the academic 
community.  A number of universities offering public administration 
graduate degree programs are adding TIP and its related problems as 
well as methodologies for combating the problem to their course 
curriculums.  At the Sao Paulo anti-TIP conference, one participant 
announced that the Higher School of the Public Ministry (Escola 
Superior do Ministerio Publico) (ESMP) was contemplating offering a 
graduate degree in anti-TIP.  (Comment:  Conference participants 
indicated to Poloff that the panelist may have gotten ahead of 
himself, since putting together a full degree program is quite 
demanding.  Nonetheless, this suggests academic institutions could 
be encouraged to study TIP, particularly in connection with 
migration and human rights. End Comment.) 
 
¶7.  (U) The federal government is making efforts to encourage TIP 
studies.  In 2008, the MOJ offered cash prizes in its first essay 
contest on TIP.  In an effort to stimulate academic interest in and 
attention to TIP, the MOJ awarded six students (three graduate 
students and three undergraduate students) cash prizes for essays on 
combating TIP, assisting TIP victims and addressing TIP from a 
policy perspective.  The Sao Paulo winner, Nathalia Justo, was 
awarded R$2000 (US$870) for her third prize winning essay in the 
undergraduate category.  Justo argued that combating TIP should be 
integrated into the framework of Brazil's foreign policy 
initiatives. 
 
¶8.  (U) TIP is also increasingly a subject of academic research. 
Assistant Professor Rafael da Silva Oliveira of the University of 
Roraima recently presented his study on the trafficking of women for 
sexual exploitation from Roraima state (the northern most state of 
Brazil) into Venezuela and Guyana.  Based on his findings, 
development of an interstate highway infrastructure between Manaus 
(the capital of bordering Amazonas state), Roraima, and extending 
north into Venezuela led to an increase of illicit activity of many 
types.  He lamented that the police are so focused on attacking the 
smuggling of drugs, gemstones and fuel that they have limited 
capacity to target TIP.  He noted that police often fail to realize 
that the highly organized crime rings that smuggle women are also 
often the same rings that are forcing the women to smuggle drugs and 
other items out of Brazil.  Da Silva echoed the sentiments of many 
Sao Paulo contacts in noting that police still need additional 
training to identify adequately TIP, and to understand its links to 
other types of crimes. 
 
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS ON THE RISE 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶9.  (U) Private corporations are increasingly joining the fight 
against TIP in Brazil.  Several years ago, the Federal Police 
released a report that noted nearly 2,000 "points of vulnerability" 
where sexual exploitation can occur along Brazilian roadways.  Most 
of these vulnerability points are along major interstate highways 
near gas stations, nightclubs and bars frequented by truck drivers. 
Childhood Brazil, an NGO that works to protect children from sexual 
exploitation commissioned a study with the Federal University of Rio 
Grande do Sul (UFRGS) to interview truck drivers and help find ways 
to tackle this problem.  The UFRGS study interviewed 239 truckers in 
six states and concluded that many truckers do not have a clear 
 
SAO PAULO 00000018  003 OF 003 
 
 
understanding of what sexual exploitation is, much less a sense that 
it is wrong.  They noted that over 60% of truckers admitted to 
having sex with a prostitute while on the road and nearly 37% 
admitted to sex with a minor. 
 
¶10.  (U) In order to educate the truckers, Childhood Brazil, in 
partnership with the Ethos Institute, started the "On the Right 
Track" program.  They solicited the major corporations moving goods 
over Brazilian roadways and asked them to help stop child sexual 
exploitation by educating their truckers.  Currently, 400 Brazilian 
companies have voluntarily entered the fight against child sexual 
exploitation (and, by extension, against TIP).  In practice, each 
company selects an individual to act as a "multiplier."  The 
multiplier is educated by Childhood Brazil about sexual exploitation 
and then returns to their company and, in turn, holds seminars for 
the truckers to educate them.  They try to help truckers develop 
empathy for the victim's situation through information and by asking 
the drivers to imagine the victim as their son or daughter.  To 
date, Childhood Brazil estimates that approximately 400,000 truckers 
have attended meetings or received literature about the problem 
through the "On the Right Track" program. 
 
BOTTOMS UP APPROACH HAS MOMENTUM 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶11.  (U) Comment:  Though TIP clearly remains a significant problem 
in Brazil and elements in Brasilia criticize U.S. TIP policies, the 
GOB has given significant attention to the issue and continues to 
expand its efforts.  The growing synergies at the local and state 
levels between elements of the federal government, state 
governments, academia and NGOs in the fight against human 
trafficking suggest that a bottom-up approach to anti-TIP efforts 
will yield progress in Brazil as we use grant monies and information 
programs to reinforce the positive anti-TIP networks that the 
Brazilians are developing.  End Comment. 
 
¶12. (U) This cable was cleared by Embassy Brasilia. 
 
WHITE