Allegation of slave labor on a Volkswagen farm was made by a priest in the 1980s

It seemed like an urban legend, says French researcher and writer Antoine Acker: a car manufacturer decides to invest in cutting-edge livestock in deep Brazil, following the motto “Integrate not to deliver” of the military dictatorship (1964-1985). The work, however, is largely done by slave labor.

The story of CVRC (Companhia Vale do Rio Cristalino Agropecuária Comércio e Indústria), which Acker learned about in sparse quotes in German books, was real and now it could result in yet another long process for Volkswagen. The company was summoned by the Public Ministry of Labor to provide clarification on its former property, located in Santana do Araguaia (PA).

An extrajudicial hearing is scheduled at the agency’s headquarters in Brasília. It will be on June 14th at 2 pm. Some of the material used by prosecutors came from the book “Volkswagen in the Amazon: The Tragedy of Global Development in Modern Brazil”, written by Acker in 2017.

“I discovered the story when I was doing a doctorate in Florence, I wanted to do a work on investments in the Amazon and I came across this case in a footnote,” the author told Sheet.

Acker claims that Volkswagen allowed access to its files in Germany, and that the parent company was against the venture in several documents. “‘Why would we go to the Amazon to raise cattle?’, there was this internal questioning.”

The explanation was in Operação Amazônia, one of the many plans to occupy the forest that existed in the country – this time funded by the military regime. The origins are at the turn of the 1960s to 1970s.

In 1973, the year in which the CVRC project began, Volkswagen produced 379,400 cars in the country. The number represented 57.6% of all passenger cars and light commercial vehicles assembled in Brazil that year. It was, by far, the biggest company in the sector and, therefore, a big tax payer.

The company’s proximity to the military dictatorship –historically, automakers have always been close to governments in Brazil– results in the agreement with Sudam (Superintendence for the Development of the Amazon). The agency had been created in 1966 to replace the SPVA (Superintendence of the Economic Valorization Plan for the Amazon), still under the government of Getulio Vargas.

In October 1966, then-President Castelo Branco sanctioned Law No. 5,174. From there, companies that invested in the occupation of the Amazon would have access to a series of benefits. The package included exemptions from income tax and federal taxes linked to industrial, agricultural, livestock and basic services activities. Nor would tariffs be levied on the import of machinery and equipment.

With an eye on these incentives, Volkswagen entered the agrarian business. An advertisement published in newspapers and magazines in the early 1970s showed an image of an ox under the headline “Volkswagen produced in the Amazon”. It was an advertisement for Sudam.

According to Acker, one of the ideas promoted by the automaker was to export beef to the United States, Europe and Japan. The argument that it was a revolutionary business for the countryside, combined with tax benefits, was used by Volkswagen do Brasil to convince the parent company.

CVRC began operating in 1974. The company’s manager was Swiss Georg Brügger, described by Father Ricardo Rezende as an impulsive man.

Rezende was responsible for denouncing slave labor on the Volkswagen farm. Most of the documents in the book written by Antoine Acker are his.

“I put together a file in the 1980s about Volkswagen, there are four folders with more than 600 pages on the case,” Rezende told Sheet.

The priest said that he moved to the south of Pará in 1978, where he coordinated the Pastoral Land Commission of the CNBB (National Confederation of Bishops of Brazil) for the region of Araguaia and Tocantins. “I heard a lot of stories about the farm, but always after the facts had happened, and then we would wait for the opportunity to make an act.”

In 1983, Rezende met three young men who had just escaped from the CVRC, also called the Volkswagen Farm. They would have claimed that they needed to do the military enlistment and so they managed to leave, even though they had debts to pay off.

These debts, according to the priest, were the way to keep workers captive – which, according to the Public Ministry of Labor, characterizes debt bondage. They were prevented from leaving until they were up to date.

With the complaint made by the young people, Rezende managed to gather a delegation of state deputies from São Paulo and visit the Volkswagen farm, with the knowledge of the automaker. There were signs that the company was not fully aware of what was actually happening.

The priest reports that, on the way to the property, he found one of the CVRC’s “cats”. So were called the contractors who acted as recruiters and foremen in the region.

Rezende claims that the man stopped the entourage and took them to the back of the pickup he was driving. There was a worker tied up there, who was used as an example of how those people would be runaways. “He was completely unaware of the crimes they were committing on the farm.”

The CVRC had well-kept masonry and wooden buildings. Manager Georg Brügger was trying to show the developed side of the property, until a man burning with fever – probably from malaria – arrived begging for help, the priest said. He asked to be taken away from there.

Brügger reportedly lost control and yelled at the priest and the sick man, but later tried to fix the bad impression. At dinner, he offered Rezende a chalice and a paten. The artifacts were carved from pau-brasil, tree wood that was protected by national law and therefore could not be cut down.

CASE HAS EFFECTS ABROAD

Despite the reports by Rezende and the deputies, the case had more repercussions abroad than in Brazil. The farm was sold in 1986 for about $20 million, with no judgments or compensation.

Labor prosecutor Rafael Garcia Rodrigues, who is coordinating the investigation into the case, said that Volkswagen was held responsible for the human rights violations that took place on the farm.

“These violations would include lack of medical treatment in cases of malaria, impediment to leaving the farm due to armed surveillance or debts incurred (debt servitude), housing installed in unsanitary places without access to potable water and with precarious food”, he says. the text sent by the Public Ministry of Labor.

Father Ricardo Rezende’s files include photos of people who managed to escape from the CVRC farm and documents similar to letters of manumission, which show that the worker had paid off his debts and therefore could leave.

The Public Ministry of Labor reports that Volkswagen’s property in Pará had 139,000 hectares and about 300 registered employees. Rezende estimates that another 600 workers were under a regime analogous to slavery. They were recruited by the “cats” in villages in the region.

In a statement, Volkswagen says that “it reinforces its commitment to contribute to investigations involving human rights in a very serious way. The company will not comment on the matter until it has clarity on all the allegations.”

Volkswagen’s short answer came from Germany, where the case resurfaced after an article published this Sunday (29) by the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In September 2020, VW do Brasil committed to allocate BRL 36.3 million to former company employees who were arrested, persecuted or tortured during the military dictatorship.

The payment was announced after the conclusion of three civil inquiries at the Federal Public Ministry, the São Paulo Public Ministry and the Labor Public Ministry.

The automaker itself promoted investigations into the case. “We regret the violations that have occurred in the past. For Volkswagen AG, it is important to responsibly deal with this negative chapter in Brazil’s history and promote transparency,” wrote Hiltrud Werner, a member of the automaker’s board of directors, at the time.