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BRAZIL
MPF demands reparations from Banco do Brasil for supporting slavery
Study revealed link between institution and slave trade
Published on October 23, 2024 at 7:49 pm
null Credit: Pieter Gotfred Bertichen/Brasiliana Iconographic
The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) in Rio de Janeiro this week reinforced the demand for Banco do Brasil (BB) to present reparation actions to the Brazilian population of African descent. The measure would act as compensation for the financial institution’s support of slavery in Brazil in the 19th century.
The charge took place in a public hearing held last Tuesday (22), led by the regional attorney for Citizens’ Rights Julio José Araujo Junior, with representatives from Banco do Brasil, the Ministry of Racial Equality (MIR) and the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship.
The MPF’s actions are part of an investigation opened against BB in September 2023. The investigation is based on the study of 14 researchers from Brazilian and American universities. They revealed BB’s links with the trade in enslaved Africans.
The researchers point out that there were “direct links between drug traffickers and the capital directly invested in Banco do Brasil shares”. Furthermore, he adds that “the institution also benefited from the dynamics of credit circulation backed by slave property that prevailed throughout the first half of the 19th century”.
Banco do Brasil recognizes that the institution was linked to slavery and, in November, issued a public apology to the black population.
Despite BB’s recognition, the MPF issued recommendations to the state bank and the Ministry of Racial Equality (MIR) to indicate specific resources for reparation actions, as well as the definition of priority measures, so that the pact for racial equality not become a “mere letter of intent”.
“The responses presented by the authorities did not add anything. We still don’t have concrete indications of these measures”, criticized prosecutor Julio Araujo at the beginning of the public hearing.
Citizen’s Rights attorney Jaime Mitropoulos added that BB’s formal apology is not a sufficient action.
“Symbolic measures are not enough for us. The request for forgiveness alone is not enough. The public policy that has already been carried out by Banco do Brasil itself is also not enough”, he declared.
“It is necessary for us to begin to outline what, in effect, are the reparations that Banco do Brasil will propose, which are those that, together with society, we will be able to implement”, he added.
Organized civil society
In December 2023, the MPF opened a public consultation to receive suggestions from civil society for reparations that could be carried out by the state bank.
More than 500 proposals were obtained, presented by 37 entities, including the Unified Black Movement (MNU), the National Coordination of Quilombos Articulation (Conaq), the Union of Popular Education Centers for Black and Working Class (Uneafro Brasil ), university and cultural and religious groups.
Some of the institutions that contributed proposals participated in this week’s public hearing.
Activist and social science student Brenna Vilanova represented the MNU of the Federal District and Surrounding Area.
“We need to ensure that all the suggestions that the black movements sent are implemented and followed up, that this action plan has defined deadlines”, he requested.
Júlia Mota, who participated representing the Agbara Fund, which brings together black women, made a connection between current social inequalities and historical racial inequality.
“Brazil’s social inequalities have their genesis in racial inequality and racial capitalism. It is the responsibility of a bank, such as Banco do Brasil, to act to end economic violence, offering basic income to black populations, as well as a reparation fund for investments in territories, enterprises, organizations, actions of black people, in addition to investment for the development of quilombola and traditional territories”, he listed.
Banco do Brasil was represented at the hearing by legal consultant João Alves and Institutional Relations manager Nivia Silveira da Mota. They recalled that the bank already carries out a series of actions to seek racial equity and other representative minorities, such as people with disabilities.
For the first time in history, BB is chaired by a black woman, administrator and career employee Tarciana Medeiros.
They reported that the bank will launch a series of actions related to reparations for the black population on December 4, 2024. However, they add that part of the proposals suggested by civil society cannot be carried out by the bank, as they are outside its scope of action. One example, cited Alves, is the payment of basic income, which depends on initiatives and budget authorized by the National Congress.
Nivia Mota highlighted that the institution takes the proposed demands into consideration, and that ten of the bank’s directors participate in the preparation of the action plan.
“We are trying to translate and take it into our action plan, as closely as we can, considering the budget that is available,” she said, adding that workshops, listening sessions and consultations were held with researchers and students on racial issues.
BB’s legal consultant assesses that believing that just a single institution, no matter how large, will solve the problem of exclusion of Afro-descendants or other excluded populations is “unrealistic”.
“The assessment we have is that we need to join forces,” he said. “The bank is not the best, it is one of the institutions that has technology, tradition and enough intervention to help other institutions”, he added, emphasizing the intonation of the expression “one of”.
The Ministry of Racial Equality was represented by the coordinator of Government Actions, Isadora de Oliveira Silva. She informed that the MIR does not yet have an action plan ready and that it is committed to listening to society to develop the measures.
“The pact had moments of listening to civil society, as well as other public bodies and different partners to collect subsidies, suggestions for the content of the pact. This is what is being systematized,” he said.
The general coordinator for the Eradication of Slave Labor, Andreia Figueira Minduca, represented the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship. She explained that, in the department, contributions to the pact for racial equality are handled jointly by the General Coordination for the Memory and Truth of Slavery and the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved People.
She stated that the issue of reparation is transversal to other current problems in the country, such as the existence of domestic slave labor, of which black women are 92% of the victims.
“May these processes add up every day and try to guarantee a minimum of dignity for workers,” he said.
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