Demonstrations in support of hunger strike bishop
-05/10/05
There have been demonstrations in Brazil in support of a bishop on hunger strike against a canal project which critics say will benefit big business at the expense of the poor.
A 2,000-strong crowd gathered around a small chapel on the banks of Brazil’s Sao Francisco River on Tuesday in a show of support for Luiz Flavio Cappio, who is staging a hunger strike to stop a government project that would divert its waters for irrigation.
The gathering heard mass and also celebrated the 59th birthday of the Roman Catholic bishop of Barra in Bahia state, who began his protest fast nine days ago.
“He is a little weak, but lucid, asking the government to practice what it has preached in the past,” Roberto Saraiva, of the Indigenous Mission Council, told Reuters.
As reported by Ekklesia, the President of Brazil urged the bishop to end his hunger strike in a letter sent at the weekend.
But on Sunday, a spokesman for the bishop told the BBC that the letter had offered nothing concrete and that the hunger strike would continue.
The project would divert the river through a 440 mile (700 km) network of canals to irrigate large areas of Brazil’s dry, poverty-stricken northeast.
But Cappio and other critics say the 2 billion dollar plan will benefit big business rather than help the poor.
They say the huge canals to transport water across five states are costly, unnecessary and aimed at promoting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s possible reelection in 2006.
Around 70 percent of the water from the current plan will go for production of shrimp, grapes, flowers and other farm exports. About 4 percent will go to the homes of poor families in arid areas.
Cappio proposes smaller projects to store and distribute water for the rural poor.
He has vowed to fast until death unless the President cancels it.
The bishop has sustained himself only by drinking water from the 1,700 mile (2,700 km)long river, which runs from Minas Gerais state to the Atlantic Ocean.
Buses of faithful have been arriving in the little town of Cabrobo, in Pernambuco state, a few miles from the Sao Sebastiao chapel where Cappio has based himself.
A crowd marched in a procession to the chapel on Tuesday to hear a mass officiated by Cappio and Bishop Tomas Balduino, president of the Pastoral Land Commission.
Vigils were also held in other cities such as Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre as support for the bishop began to spread across this vast nation, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country.
He has received backing from various churchmen, human rights groups and environmentalists in Brazil and overseas, Saraiva said.
Cappio, who has fought to protect the river and its communities for 30 years, began the strike nine days ago when the project won environmental authorization.
Demonstrations in support of hunger strike bishop
-05/10/05
There have been demonstrations in Brazil in support of a bishop on hunger strike against a canal project which critics say will benefit big business at the expense of the poor.
A 2,000-strong crowd gathered around a small chapel on the banks of Brazil’s Sao Francisco River on Tuesday in a show of support for Luiz Flavio Cappio, who is staging a hunger strike to stop a government project that would divert its waters for irrigation.
The gathering heard mass and also celebrated the 59th birthday of the Roman Catholic bishop of Barra in Bahia state, who began his protest fast nine days ago.
“He is a little weak, but lucid, asking the government to practice what it has preached in the past,” Roberto Saraiva, of the Indigenous Mission Council, told Reuters.
As reported by Ekklesia, the President of Brazil urged the bishop to end his hunger strike in a letter sent at the weekend.
But on Sunday, a spokesman for the bishop told the BBC that the letter had offered nothing concrete and that the hunger strike would continue.
The project would divert the river through a 440 mile (700 km) network of canals to irrigate large areas of Brazil’s dry, poverty-stricken northeast.
But Cappio and other critics say the 2 billion dollar plan will benefit big business rather than help the poor.
They say the huge canals to transport water across five states are costly, unnecessary and aimed at promoting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s possible reelection in 2006.
Around 70 percent of the water from the current plan will go for production of shrimp, grapes, flowers and other farm exports. About 4 percent will go to the homes of poor families in arid areas.
Cappio proposes smaller projects to store and distribute water for the rural poor.
He has vowed to fast until death unless the President cancels it.
The bishop has sustained himself only by drinking water from the 1,700 mile (2,700 km)long river, which runs from Minas Gerais state to the Atlantic Ocean.
Buses of faithful have been arriving in the little town of Cabrobo, in Pernambuco state, a few miles from the Sao Sebastiao chapel where Cappio has based himself.
A crowd marched in a procession to the chapel on Tuesday to hear a mass officiated by Cappio and Bishop Tomas Balduino, president of the Pastoral Land Commission.
Vigils were also held in other cities such as Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre as support for the bishop began to spread across this vast nation, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country.
He has received backing from various churchmen, human rights groups and environmentalists in Brazil and overseas, Saraiva said.
Cappio, who has fought to protect the river and its communities for 30 years, began the strike nine days ago when the project won environmental authorization.