Brazil: the Tupinikim/Guarani struggle continues

Even if the Minister of Justice devoted just a few minutes to meet with Indigenous Peoples' delegates and representatives of CIMI on July 15th, they were able to hand him 3800 signatures from 29 countries expressing support to their struggle. A meeting with the undersecretary was arranged for August 12th. In the meantime, Aracruz does not seem to change its attitude towards Indigenous claims. It hired Burson-Marsteller -the biggest public relations company in the world- known for its previous activities in favour of the past Argentinian dictatorship, of Philip Morris in the USA and Union Carbide after the infamous accident in India. As a reaction against Aracruz's main trade union SINTICEL, that has shown its support to the Indigenous Peoples' struggle and even denounced problems with the firm's management in Norwegian newspapers, Burson-Marsteller began a big campaign trying to show that SINTICEL does not represent Aracruz workers. LO (the biggest confederation of trade unions in Norway) and CUT (Brazilian Confederation of Trade Unions) support SINTICEL's firm position.
Source: Winfried Overbeek. CIMI-Leste. July 1997.