Cattle farmer Miguel de Souza Rezende owns Fazenda Zonga, a farm located in Maranhao state, one of the regions where slave work is most present. In 1996, the first workers found in slavery conditions were released from Fazenda Zonga, and there followed five similar episodes.

According to Reporter Brasil, if the authorities had taken stronger measures in 1996, they could have avoided the situation of 159 rural workers who suffered abuses in Rezende’s field.

And this is just an example. On January 28th, in the National Day against Slave Work in Brazil, there were activities to raise awareness on the population, among them the launching of a Political-Legal Mapping of Contemporary Slave Work in Maranhao.

The Pastoral Land Commission estimated that there are currently 25 thousand workers in slavery conditions in Brazil, according to Adital news agency. The figure at world level is shocking: there are 12 million people around the world who live as “contemporary slaves.”

The Political-Legal Mapping includes official figures and denunciations by organizations that help better understand this phenomenon and allows people to know who the landowners involved are, who the intermediaries and decision makers involved in these cases are.

It also shows the ways in which the Brazilian legal system works, for instance the case of Raimundo Nonato Pereira who worked facilitating cheap labor to Sagrisa field, among them underage people, and who was absolved by a Maranhao court despite he confessed that the working tools he bought for the workers were then taken from their salaries, and that the water available for the workers was the same water used for cattle.

Photo: www.adital.com.br