Nelson de Sá: German newspapers and TV highlight VW’s ‘slavery’ in Brazil, during the dictatorship

The Süddeutsche Zeitung, headlined this Sunday, and the German network ARD had access to 2,000 pages of the Brazilian investigation into a Volkswagen farm near the Amazon between 1974 and 1986, which allegedly held employees as “slaves”.

According to the paper, “during the dictatorship, VW had a large cattle ranch, on which temporary workers were apparently kept as slaves.” And “to this day the man who set up the ‘Volkswagen Farm’ doesn’t understand what the problem is.”

“According to the documents, the crimes were committed by labor brokers hired by the farm’s administration,” says ARD. “Temporary workers were reportedly shot, beaten and tied up. The testimonies describe, among other things, how a worker’s wife was raped as punishment for trying to escape and how minors were held against their will on the farm. A mother testified that her son succumbed to the injuries sustained, while other workers would have disappeared.”

The company should attend a hearing on the 14th. Via France Presse, it already has repercussions in China.

SQUID IS BACK

Featured in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “Lula x Bolsonaro: duel for Brazil”. The report signed by one of the editors of the German newspaper opens with a greeting to the former president:

“The gray-bearded gentleman was unstoppable when he appeared before a crowd in Contagem, Brazil, last week. His voice hoarse, his eyes shining, his head flushed: ‘Governing Brazil is easy. You just have to think about the people. , have them in your heart. Most rulers don’t like the people. But I love it.’ Brazil hasn’t seen performances like this for years. But whoever talks like that is well known to Brazilians and the rest of the world. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known to everyone as Lula, is back.”

However, he emphasizes that “Brazil is more divided than ever, and this is a problem for companies”.