This message was self-deleted by its author
This message was self-deleted by its author (sl8) on Fri Nov 27, 2020, 09:40 AM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Gold Slaves
By Ana Aranha, photos by Lilo Clareto. From Itaituba, Pará | 8/23/18
Even dating was prohibited in open gold mining within a protected area in Pará. Indebted and isolated, workers lived under the strict command of the owner
The Raimunda Oliveira Nunes mining project developed an efficient production system. But its differential is not in the way it extracts metal from the soil, but in the technique to extract gold from its employees. For 36 years she and her family have been improving the system on the property, illegally installed within the National Forest of Amana, in the municipality of Itaituba, western Pará.
In addition to being the employer, Raimunda is also the local bank and commerce. She “keeps” the payment of employees (between 3 and 7% of the gold they extract) and uses this credit to discount their expenses in the mining. All control is maintained by her, in a famous notebook that is at the headquarters and nobody accesses it, only her. The debt is only revealed when they leave, at which point the employer does the math. The prospectors refer with fear to the moment when she “scratches the notebook”.
Raimunda created a series of rules, atypical even for the most popular garimpeiros, that make workers spend what they earn inside their mining. It is forbidden to bring food from outside, shopping only in your canteen. Dating is prohibited, relationships are intermediated by payment for programs. It is forbidden to use the internet available at the headquarters, forcing anyone who wants to speak with the family to pay for transportation to the place where there is a radio. It all becomes debt.
When she scratches the notebook, some owe so much that they don't even have a balance to leave the place. It was the case of a worker sitting on the side of the road that connects the headquarters to the gate when the train of ten cars entered the property on the fifth of the 16th.
That was when the 38 men and women who worked there were rescued by the Ministry of Labor's mobile inspection group. The inspectors considered that the 30 gold miners and 8 cooks lived in a situation similar to that of slaves. As the mining was within the National Forest of Amana, the action was in partnership with Icmbio, the Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation for Biodiversity, which prohibited extraction fronts. The Public Labor Ministry, the Federal Public Defender's Office, the Federal Public Ministry and the Military Police also participated.
More:
https://reporterbrasil.org.br/2018/08/resgate-trabalho-escravo-garimpo-ouro-para/
Can't find her photo anywhere. She apparently doesn't want the public able to spot her anywhere. She should have been in prison long ago.
Thanks for the information.
