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Once upon a time...
"The wonderful story of cocoa"
Once upon a time there was a tasty fruit
of golden color which was known as cocoa
From the cocoa there came the delicious chocolate.
And it was in a beautiful country called Brazil where an enchanted region was,
and because so much cocoa was planted
it became known as the Cocoa Cultivation Region in the state of Bahia.
In this region there were many cocoa farms,
and their owners were recognized as
"cocoa colonels."
They were all very rich,
powerful, and very mean.
They had many employees
who were forced to live on the farms, far away from their towns.
Until one day, during a beautiful late afternoon,
the good winds brought something very serious to that region,
and it destroyed all the cocoa.
But this part of the story is not very interesting,
so we will skip it.
And it was at that moment that all the cocoa farmers became poor.
And finally, the workers were free and they could go to with families, their towns.
where there were lots and lots of fun.
And just like that, they lived happily ever after.
And this my friends, is the true story of cocoa.
I don't know why, but there are still people who...
Don't believe me!
This November 18th, 2011 The president Dilma Roussef sanctions the law that creates the "Truth Commission"
is a historical date for the country of Brazil.The president Dilma Roussef sanctions the law that creates the "Truth Commission"
It is the day in which we celebrated,
and will from now on celebrate
the truth and transparency.
In Brazil there are many truths.
With the introduction of the witch's broom infestation to the cocoa plantations
in the southern state of Bahia, 600.000 hectares of cocoa cultivation became useless,
bringing about a socioeconomic and ecological disaster
in a scale which had never been registered before.
The repercussions of the effects of this catastrophe have been echoing since 1989
and affect 93 towns of an important biogeographic area,
which makes home to almost 3 million people.
This film tackles these facts according to the evidence and scientific arguments
found in different reported accounts and in official documents.
PRESENTING
Cocoa Cultivation Region -- Bahia -- Brazil
An independent production
A movie by Dilson Araújo
When I was walking through the farm,
I saw something tied down at the bottom of the cocoa trees.
Who could have done this? It could not have been a child, there was a knot...
And I saw the broom tied with its own skin...
Now... yes... whoever did this, knew what they were doing.
No longer something accidental, but something deliberated, motivated and brought by men...
Dilson Araújo Research, screenplay, production, and directing.
Henrique Filho screenplay editing, setting, and completion.
Isaias Neto Director of Photography
Ramon Ângelo Direct Sound
Genivaldo Santos Direct Sound Assistant
Álisson Fagundes Narration and Computer Graphics
Deri Junior Illustration
Eva Lima Witch
José Nestor Man #1
Marco Antônio Mô Man #2
At the end of 1994, he started to become very sad...
My husband. We no longer could buy our groceries as before, large family, you know,
and the witch's broom just getting worse. He would go out and his friends would say:
"Deodato, the region is going to disappear because of the witch's broom."
So then he would come back home feeling sad and would just cry...
In January of 95, he went down to the bank to get a loan.
When he got there they said:
"look, now that the witch's broom is devastating everything, we're not giving any loans."
On the 7th he told me: "Noélia, I'm not gonna handle it,
I cannot handle seeing myself with no money".
There wasn't any money left, no money left to pay the bills... electricity, water.
On the 8th, everything that had to happen happened.
He had bought a coil rope. I suspected of him so much already.
I had already taken away his gun, I hid it,
I took it away... he wanted to kill himself with... with a razor, I took it away, and...
I had already taken poison away from his hands, but then that rope, I didn't understand that.
He laid his head on my back and then he said: "Noélia, if I could, I'd get married again."
And so I said: "What, marry again?"
And he said: "Yeah, I'm going to get married again, but it's to you I'm going to marry again"
He said: "You're a good wife, a good mother, a good daughter, a good Brazilian."
At 8 o'clock he said: "I'm going to bed."
I was suspecting of him so bad, I knew he wasn't going to sleep.
I was alone with him at home, and I was nervous, nervous, nervous, nervous.
Finally at 4AM, I prayed to God to find another way out and I went to sleep.
I woke up at 7AM. Oh my God, where's Deodato. Deodato! I started to call his name.
I walked into some rooms, into the bathroom, I couldn't find him anywhere,
and so when I walked into a room,
and I came close to him, he was already dead, hanging from the ceiling.
Death certificate Name: Deodato de Almeida Gomes Cause of death: Cerebral Anoxia -- Hanging
And so I began to scream and punch the walls. I yelled: oh God, it can't be!
I said, oh my God, what am I going to do now? We don't have a penny.
And so I lost weight, I became sick, there was nothing to eat, not a single thing.
The kids were all nervous. My daughter, who lived in São Paulo, was the one helping me with things.
But there were a lot of people here who were left with nothing, they couldn't buy groceries.
One farmer had nothing left to eat and he would walk around and just cry,
there wasn't any more money for food.
Oh! They told me someone brought it (the witch's broom),
they told me someone brought it here, but who brought it we don't know.
After the criminal introduction of the witch's broom to the state of Bahia,
a region which was once thriving is going through a socioeconomic and environmental decay
I would say a psychological decay, also.
I heard about a guy in Ibirapitanga that hung himself with a rope in his own house.
I have a friend from Central Bank who took rat poison.
Luciano died of a stroke because of this plague.
There were many... many deaths around here due to the witch's broom crisis.
We never imagined that... that the appearance of the witch's broom in our plantation
would have such a drastic affect as it had.
They would say business was dropping because of the broom,
the broom brought a heavy drop in the production.
With the drop in the production
there was also a reduction in the power of purchase of land owners, cocoa producers.
Business in Ilhéus, Itabuna and in all of the cocoa
cultivating region fell drastically, there wasn't any money circulating.
And so, all the businesses fell into the same problem as the crops, bankruptcy.
Even the street worker was complaining.
In Camacan, just the news of the arrival of the witch's broom disease,
made it difficult to sell our cocoa.
The money we needed
to pay our expenses wasn't coming in, you know?
So what was everyone's approach to the situation?
Simply fire their employees.
There was a huge loss,
fist the lay off the workers and their jobs
stimulated the economy in the region, this caused a great impact.
We saw over two hundred thousand workers unemployed in the field.
Of course, but not only that! There was also a reduction in the population...
the population of many towns in the region.
A lot of people left,
they would go after new resources, some went to different places.... other cities.
They lost their jobs, what would they do? Move to the big cities.
Especially, in the suburbs of the three largest cities of the region,
Itabuna, Ilhéus, and Porto Seguro.
With a large amount in Porto Seguro, in the region of Camacan, Ilhéus, and Itabuna too,
generating lots of poverty.
I worked ten years on the farm. Mowing, harvesting, and drying.
The witch's broom devastated the cocoa plantation,
I had to come to the dumpster,
there wasn't another way out
We didn't have anything else to work with,
so we had to come and work with recycling.
The cocoa farms played a very similar role to that of the government...
providing housing for workers, for example.
Today we see a large number of favelas - slums - , especially in Ilhéus and Itabuna.
The witch's broom brought not only a social issue, but also a huge environmental impact.
The workers lost their jobs... the crop was abandoned in a generalized way.
and the producer to survive, to eat,
to get by was forced to cut down and sell all the lumber in his property.
This caused great environmental damage.
The most significant part of what was left of the Rain Forest was in that area of Camacan.
Today, it's a complete desert,
it's unbelievable when you see pictures from the past, and you say, it's not possible, you know,
and looking at today's pictures, in such a short period of time
it all led to this economic, socio-economic,
and environmental impact that resulted in this misery.
Wherever it (the witch's broom) passed through,it destroyed the economy,
it destroyed families, it destroyed, it destroyed the production, destroyed financial income.
And, it brought exactly this, terrible impoverishment of the region.
Take the example of Itabuna, the city which was a "gold mine", and what it is now.
Itabuna, for example, was recently rated as one of the most violent cities in Brazil for young people.
Honestly, a part of this violence and social disintegration
is also a result of the impacts caused by the witch's broom crime.
Certainly, this violence you see in the larger cities in the cocoa region today
is surely due to the introduction of this infestation, witch's broom,
casting out people from the countryside, over populating the suburbs of nearby cities,
causing underemployment, people living in houses that has no sanitation,
in places that have no adequate sheltering.
And, there, they start to get involved in crimes, drug dealing and drug use.
If it was such and such "A", if it was "B", if it was "C", it will be revealed, who knows.
We are planting a seed now, aiming at the possibilities
But what is relevant is that, if it was "A" , "B", or "C", whatever was caused, whatever was brought
the impact that it... that this disaster, the witch's broom brought, tumbling down, lives collapsed.
There are three million people seriously affected by the witch's broom.
I used to say in the beginning:
the witch's broom is a war!
I didn't know the witch's broom.
It is an infestation caused by a terrible fungus.
It is a disease
caused by a fungus
called Moniliophtora perniciosa.
The interaction of the fungus with the plant
is a very complex interaction, making it very hard to fight the infestation.
The witch's broom fungus reproduces itself, *** and asexually.
The disease cycle of witch's broom begins with a spore penetration.
It is a spore that looks like a drop of water, it is so sensitive that it dies in a few hours.
It is very interesting that the fungus only penetrates into growing tissue..
So the big problem with the witch's broom is not so much the fruits that were affected,
but the fruits that were not even produced.
In reality, what the witch's broom causes
is a loss to the cocoa producer.
The cocoa cultivation region has been here since the 17th... since the 18th century,
and we have been laboring for over 250 years in this region.
Look. It's a good region. Lots of cocoa.
The cocoa trees were laden with their fruits.
Because it was a region free of endemic cocoa diseases,
cocoa became extremely productive here.
The laborer worked a lot.
They would go to the farm, and sometimes they would shuck cocoa beans up to 200 full boxes.
Ninety-two percent of the properties had less than 100 hectares,
so it was a region made up of essentially small... micro, small, and medium producers.
The cocoa farms... they provided a great number of jobs.
We had, at one point, 247 workers, all of them living on the farm premises.
We employed at one point 90 people.
As we always worried about the social aspects, there were always schools.
In three farms in which we are going to work,
we put up 211 workers who are still being
maintained with the harvesting of the cocoa.
There were many workers.
There was such a groundwork, just on this farm,
there were 150 to 200 workers.
This entire micro region used to migrate to Ilhéus and Itabuna to buy what they needed.
Money circulated easily. Conditions were appropriate. You had a harbor exporting cocoa.
Cocoa was the engine, the main product used to make chocolate,
it is appreciated by the entire world,
a product also valued today in the medical field.
Acting as an antidepressant, it brings happiness, feelings, endorphin.
It brings pleasure, I mean... no one ever says: 'I don't like chocolate.'
The cocoa produced in the state of Bahia,
which was recognized in the international market
as type 1 cocoa or Bahia superior, 70% of it was produced in the cabruca system.
The cabruca-cocoa system was developed by farmers in the cocoa cultivating region.
Technically it is an agro-forestry cultivation system, to be more specific.
And so as a part of this system you have,
pau-brasil, ipês, putumujú, jequitibá, pau d'alho, araç a d'água.. trees.
Because there are different trees involved in this system,
it creates passageways in between the forests.
The number of animals that can transit in the cabruca system is higher,
They can even nest in the cabruca, they feed themselves in the cabruca.
The golden lion tamarin monkey, for example, adapts itself very well to the cabrucas.
These trees favor the growth of bromeliads and orchids in this system.
When compared to other agricultural systems,
none of them have a biodiversity such as the one found in the cabruca,
It is truly a heritage of the southern region of the state of Bahia.
While we analyzed and meditated on the idea of the cabruca system
and the cocoa cultivating region, two huge lessons were learned:
First, having the capacity to create revenue and preserve,
I mean, we created a different model,
which is the productive preservation,
this was a huge lesson
that we were able to show to the world,
preserve and produce.
And the second huge lesson was that the world has to learn
that the cocoa cultivator is a partner
of the environmental resources of the region.
This is the lesson that the urban society needs to learn.
It needs to learn how to correctly use the natural resources
without exhausting them, we can teach this to the world.
Cocoa brought sustainability to the state, the state of Bahia...
Cocoa gave the nation sustainability
it gave the cocoa cultivating region sustainability,
it generated jobs...
when we look at it and see it so far away, right,
speaking of production and how much the cocoa cultivation
contributed to the development of the region, micro regions,
the state, the country, we realize... that's when that we realize it..
It needs to be recognized and valued, taken better care of, because of everything it contributed with.
"and so this was the rich region of the state of Bahia,
it maintained the state for a very long time."
In 1957, the administration of the president of Brasil Juscelino Kubitschek
created the Cocoa Farming Executive Commission Plan, the CEPLAC.
It was said that it was a temporary commission,
and its intention was to solve the debts from the 1955 crisis.
In 1961, after the establishment of the exchange retention tax,
the CEPLAC acquires a stable financial support
and it consolidated itself in the control of the cocoa farming.
With resources generated from cocoa,
CEPLAC composed its staff, created a department of extension and a research center.
During the 70's, with the objective of occupying the Brazilian Amazon,
president Ernest Geisel's military government
despised the risks of dissemination of the witch's broom infestation
and started to plant cocoa in the northern part of the country, where the disease was endemic.
The witch's broom and the cocoa are both natives of the Amazon.
We could say that they evolved together.
What really could have never happened
was the creation of conditions for the fungus to get here. Like I said,
They were reckless, incompetent, to say the least.
For 18 years,CEPLAC maintained inspection offices at airports and stations on the boarders...
and there was a program called CAVAB,
the Witch's Broom Control Campaign and its objective was to inspect the passengers bags.
hoping to prevent the transportation of infected material
to the cocoa producing region of the state of Bahia and the state of Espírito Santo.
Despite the existence of several plant health inspection policies,
in 1989, it was discovered in the Uruçuca and Camacan counties
the first outbreaks of the disease.
Soon after, scattered outbreaks began to emerge.
The fungus seemed to jump from one point to another.
The disease was spread throughout the region.
I had thirty men working, doing the cleaning, pruning, fertilizing,
and soon discovered a branch with a swelling, like a cancer
and so I sent this cancer to CEPLAC so they could analyze it.
And on May 30th, they were trying to find me and tell me that it was the witch's broom.
They are responsible for fighting off the diseases, every disease...
not only the witch's broom, any exotic disease that is introduced,
naturally or artificially in any region,
in Brazil there are... standards... legislation that shows what needs to be done and the government
is responsible for this and in this case,
specifically, the Ministry of Agriculture alongside CEPLAC.
The secretary of the ministry came here,
visited the area and began to spread products, like copper and Sandoz...
and then they spread out Agent Orange
and then they took everything down. They took down jacaranda, cedar, jequitibá...
We pursued a legal action in 1989,
we spent 20 years fighting against the government to try and receive reparation
and, after that, the government will be paying for a ten year term.
Ever since Chico Lima's first outbreak,
I instructed my workers, administrators,
to be aware of any sign of the witch's broom.
When I went to the Panelinha farm, my manager, Mr. Hugo...
He said: "Mr. Ramayana, I'm very sad to tell you,"
then he showed me a fruit, a fruit that was definitely infected.
It had been taken off of a cocoa tree that was right by a fence,
in an area which my dad had sold to Luciano Santana.
When I saw that, I was in shock, right.
And so I took that fruit and went directly to CEPLAC, right here on the Itabuna - Ilhéus road.
Just when they announced the outbreak in Camacan.
After identifying the outbreak and after the whole eradication work had been done,
CEPLAC banned those areas.
After studying and mapping these outbreaks,
smaller outbreaks were happening, they were happening throughout the BR-101 highway,
and they came to the conclusion that the eradication needed to be continued.
We had to try to control it
by managing the land. And this was truly the first action taken by CEPLAC.
Throughout the following years, no meaningful action is taken to try and fight off the disease.
Given the absence of the government, the witch's broom advances taking away all the richness.
This period is known as the "black hole".
The cocoa cultivator reaches an extreme situation of economic and psychological vulnerability.
Many suffer from depression. Some commit suicide.
Only in 1995 does the Brazilian government introduce
the Recovery Plan for Cocoa Farming in Bahia
formulated by CEPLAC,
the technological package would be able to control the disease and increase productivity
by about 2,200 pounds per hectare.
As we were used to, we came to the farm to celebrate children's day, in... in the mid-nineties,
but we were planning on shutting down the farm,
seeing all those kids, so many families on the farm, we thought: is it fair to fire all these people?
When you passed by the farm,
there were dozens and dozens of unemployed workers,
looking for jobs, for food, water.
"Touched by the situation
and looking at CEPLAC's Recovery Program,
Edvaldo Bruni and his wife retired and moved to the farm".
We went through many inquiries alongside CEPLAC,
analyzing the viability of that project that was being offered to us.
The members of CEPLAC would say: "without a doubt it's a project in which you can invest in and you will have spectacular results."
So we financed the first step through CEPLAC
and we moved to the farm, we dedicated our lives to fighting the fight.
The Bank of Brazil emitted reports that were highly favorable to our work.
The farm was an example for the region.
And then came the second step, both steps were an absolute failure.
Shortly after, CEPLAC showed us another possibility... a different idea of the graft.
They took a unanimous decision at CEPLAC,
they believed the graft was the final solution for the crop.
We financed it. And what happened? CEPLAC was mistaken again.
Within CEPLAC's orientation, we... grafted 200 hectares,
we hewed down 200 hectares, according to the demands of... the Bank of Brazil inspectors,
according to CEPLAC's demands.
his resulted in utter failure.
Everything CEPLAC asked me to do, I did.
Everything that the Bank wanted, I complied with.
I was just fooled by CEPLAC.
The only thing left for us in CEPLAC's mistaken orientation, was a monstrous debt.
The technological package that was launched
to combat the witch's broom in Bahia
was a technological package adapted to regions
that have completely different climate.
It was absolutely inappropriate.
The Recovery Plan for Cocoa Farming,
in the first and second stage, with that trim, that drastic pruning, unfortunately had no effect.
The lowering of the tree crown, done at any time,
any time, without any knowledge of what happened,
this was, in my opinion, the huge human action that generated this extraordinary...
spread of the fungus throughout the region, in such a short period of time.
In 1990, five years before the Recovery Plan, CEPLAC defined the use of the pruning:
"The use of pruning to reduce the availability of healthy sources in order to keep the disease at a harmless and less compromising level should be regarded as a technical agriculturally impractical, costly, and inefficient action."
After the first and second step, came the third and fourth step, which was to clone the graft.
After some time, it was observed that most of these clones,
that were recommended and that the cocoa cultivators planted,
were incompatible to themselves.
What does this mean: they can't reproduce amongst themselves,
and since they made an intensive cloning of the same plant over large areas,
the plantation would vegetate but would not produce any cocoa.
CEPLAC didn't pay attention to the importance of the *** compatibility problem.
This latter fact was remarkably wicked to reduce the production.
Before the second phase of the Recovery Program,
CEPLAC attended the 12th International Cocoa Conference,
where a scientific research was presented noting that:
"The preponderant presence of plants that are not compatible with themselves in the state of Bahia is the main cause of low productivity in the plantations."
The authors of the research worked for CEPLAC.
The recommendation to cut down, I believe, was another mistake.
CEPLAC recommended the cutting down of the old plantations
and instructed the Bank of Brazil that,
if you didn't cut down the old ones, they would not give you money to plant the new seeding,
if I had done that, certainly I would not be here today.
What I harvest today comes from the trees that I didn't cut down,
because if I had cut them down, I would be in a worse situation.
And truth be told,
those that didn't accept CEPLAC's orientations,
there are some cultivators here that didn't accept CEPLAC's orientation;
they are in a situation a lot better than that of those who followed the recommendations.
In 1995, when the crop recovery packages were assembled,
they were set up based on a technology that the State knew was wrong.
In November 2009, the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture at that time,
Jose Gerardo Fontelles, recognized the inefficiency of the technology developed
by CEPLAC's Recovery Program.
I must stress the following, there's a different reality.
The technology that CEPLAC proposed to producers was not good enough.
There was no technology to fight the witch's broom at that time. What was proposed:
a reduction of the tree crown, and whatever blah blah blah and so on ...
And today, if you mention this in the southern region of Bahia... they'll hurt you, ok!
They pruned the cocoa ... cocoa and such ...
technical assistance, but for the producer that was in this very difficult situation, zero.
So there was no way that it was going to work.
The technology that you showed us here wasn't worth anything.
It wasn't worth anything, because it was not validated,
there was no scientific proof; someone has to be responsible for it.
I worked at CEPLAC; I was at the credit department and saw how things were done.
But to say the producer didn't know what to do is understandable.
Now, to say that the technicians at CEPLAC didn't know what to do, that's a bit worrying.
I mean, we knew that CEPLAC was lost, that was the reality of it, right!
Well, CEPLAC made a mistake, it was an unfortunate one!
Jeez! CEPLAC was managing well at the best conditions.
But when we needed it in adverse circumstances, it was as unprepared as we were,
and it wasn't supposed to be that way.
As president of the Agricultural Committee, I made a request for information
by the Agricultural Committee to CEPLAC to know what...that...
which research studies were being done by CEPLAC since it's foundation.
And they sent me a list of research studies that, because I'm not an agronomist,
I sent them to EMBRAPA for analysis. The answer I got from EMBRAPA was that:
"there was no research done by CEPLAC that wasn't known to the scientific world
for over the last forty years. At that time.
The farmers in the area couldn't pay to have research done.
Research is great! EMBRAPA is doing research studies in Brazil on everything and it's a success!
Who is paying? The federal government!
Why was it that, with cacao, it was the other cacao producers and I that were paying for it?
It's the government that has to financially support CEPLAC, that's my position.
The recovery plan didn't have the expected outcome,
but it even worsened the debt of the producer.
This plan was put into the market
and it was financed by the producers through the banks
who remained as managers, as administrators of these plans
The government gave out a really 'expensive' money to the cacao producer,
money to do the wrong thing, mandatorily, I mean:
the guy couldn't take that money and do whatever he wanted!
If the producer didn't obey the...
the CEPLAC guidelines, forcibly, compulsorily, he wouldn't receive the installments of the... the loan
and the producer continued confident, without suspecting CEPLAC
which was an agency of such a scientific knowledge.
A lot of producers took money to do that, mistakenly, do you understand?
In all of the contracts, the producers were forced, in advance,
to collect one to two per cent of the budget as a... payment for technical support.
It didn't produce the expected revenue
and it was there that people started to lose the war and lose part of their ownership.
They had absurd debt, illegal debts,
extremely substantial worker's complaints,
no health insurance, no retirement fund, no way of supporting themselves,
some committed suicide.
In May 2004, CEPLAC published a technical note stating that the program didn't produce economical revenue and recommended "that the producers were not considered as in default by the financial authorities until a permanent solution could be found to the problem".
In April 2009, CEPLAC published another technical note, this time recommending "treating the debts that were originated by the Program for the Recuperation of the Cacao Farming in Bahia with similar standards foreseen in the Fund for Agriculture Defense for catastrophic events".
And a technical note admitting the mistake.
How can a magistrate, a federal judge, or a state judge close their eyes to this
and say the producer is responsible for the debt
when the part who is making the charges admits they made a mistake?
We must file a lawsuit.
In November 10th 2009, in a public audience at the Federal Senate,
the CEPLAC director, Jay Wallace,
acknowledges that the debt of the cacao producers happened in an improper manner.
But the cacao, besides all of these problems,
faced a infestation that didn't exist in the cacao area of Bahia.
And as the senator said, and this is present in the technical note,
a big part of the problem was confronted in a mistaken way,
it should have been dealt as a catastrophe, because the area suffered harm
and it should have been given a similar treatment
as what is given when they detect outbreaks of the aphthous fever,
where the producer is given a reparation.
That didn't happen to the cacao farming and all this story comes from the initial indebtedness
that was made unduly.
Today, the producer receives the federal tax foreclosures,
because the rural credit was illegally converted into tax credit
and they are now being charged by the government as if it was some kind of tax.
We should have been dealt with by the state government, by the, by the federal government,
in a differentiated way .
In a bilateral agreement between the bank and the cacao producer, if the Bank of Brazil
through CEPLAC, tells the producer, forcibly makes him take a wrong technical support
leading him to bankruptcy, this agreement is an agreement that can't be obeyed,
that can't be paid.
How will the producer survive?
This is suicide! How can't our rulers see this arbitrariness, this illegality?
They turned their backs.
So, uhm... I think the absence of the government in this... this... this whole disaster is...
it was an important factor for the whole area to be in the situation it is today.
We have been living for twenty years with a disease,
with no cure, without cocoa and the federal government billing us as if we were the debtors.
I don't think that there was a strong positioning in defense of the producers,
in defense of the economical interests of the area.
The Cocoa producer was a victim
he contributed to the federal government for many years and now he needs to be compensated
Because CEPLAC was the agency responsible for...for preventing witch's broom,
but they failed, they are a federal agency,
and they failed in its duty. It means that the federal government failed.
So the federal government has to compensate the cocoa producers for what they lost.
But my friend, if we just wait, instead, we're gonna be left without anything.
And in the future our children, and our grandchildren, they are going to say:
"you're such a bunch of losers"
End
Before celebrating the truth, it's necessary to end with the lies.
About the witch`s broom insertion
The witch's broom insertion in the state of Bahia,
when you see the huge distance between the Amazon and Southern Bahia,
you can see it's impossible that it happened by natural causes.
In 1989, shortly after the first outbreak of the infestation, specialists from CEPLAC published the REPORT OF THE FIRST OCCURENCE, concluding that:
"The insertion of C. perniciosa in the State of Bahia cannot be attributed to natural agents of dissemination..."
"It makes it possible to believe that the pathogen was introduced by human hands."
Technicians at CEPLAC new that...
that this incident happened through some human insertion.
At that time they blamed the influx of workers.
Which back then, it was believed to be an unintentional insertion.
The possibility of such spore being inserted unintentionally, in a boot, in a sheathed machete or mixed in organic matter, this chance simply does not exist.
or mixed in organic matter, this chance simply does not exist.
And the reason is because this fungus does not survive for more than 3 or 4 hours
out of the infected vegetable tissue.
Overall, it happened two spores at the same time, one in the north and another on in the south,
and then started the infestation...
I mean, if you calculate all the improbabilities,
we can for sure guarantee that this insertion was made by human hands.
Well, it would probably require someone to transport an infected tissue.
In April 1990, CEPLAC sends a TECHNICAL REPORT ABOUT THE WITCH'S BROOM IN BAHIA.
"The analysis of three areas of infection in the map combined with the analysis of the field conditions,
allow the inference that the spread of the disease did not occur by natural means, as through wind or water.
It was probably originated from induced spreading through infected material, occurring in the three areas at the same time..."
The spreading of the fungus is a dissemination that shows a tendency of being centered.
If you think: there is a spot here, in the middle of a circle.
From the core spot, the fungus reaches some feet ahead, right?
Then it goes on forming other areas of infection. It is extremely unlikely
that the infestations start one-to-one in insolated locus.
You see an infected spot that started here
and another that started there, far away from each other this is extremely unlikely to happen.
When the infestation occurred in Camacan, at Boa Sorte Farm,
it was really shocking because we started to wonder
how that disease expanded from Uruçuca to Camacan?
It is a broom...we even used to joke saying that it was a kangaroo's broom,
jumping at different places but leaving no traces.
So it is very likely that both areas have been contaminated simultaneously, isn't it?...
or almost at the same time.
Then the infestation could reach Camacan area,
but it would have taken a longer time for it to occur.
But the way it happened, we are sure it was a deliberated action. We have no doubt.
In 1996, it was published a scientific work, where the CEPLAC technicians, conclude:
"In Bahia there are considerable evidences that the disease was not only inserted but also spread
by human actions after the initial infestations were established.
However, the occurrence of two different contaminated areas suggests that there was more than just one launch of infected material.
The pathogen was brought to the heart of the cocoa farming area."
The areas were far away apart and the contaminated areas were isolated.
That is one of the evidences that the insertion was intentional.
I analyze all this and I conclude that it was not an accidental insertion.
On the contrary, it was induced, deliberated, made by man.
In 1989, early in the morning, before I start my work shift, I walked into my office at CEPEC
and I was surprised to see a bag on my table.
that bag there were twigs and branches, green and dry contaminated by the witch's broom...
probably from Uruçuca area, because it was at that same period of time.
And outside that bag, I found a really ironic note saying in capital letters:
"GO LOOK FOR THE WITCH'S BROOM EVERYWHERE ELSE, YOU BUMS!"
I don't know how a stranger could have entered the building,
passed through the security gate... which is very strict...
and very hard for someone to go by, mainly by car;
then go to the Center for Research on Cocoa director's office to leave a...
an undesirable gift as such one. This leads to the belief that someone from the staff did it.
I immediately called the regional coordinator, Dr. Carlos Vianna and reported what had happened.
In November 1989, CEPLAC prepared an official request to the Brazilian Federal Police to take action on this account, indicating that:
"...it is raised suspicion that behind the contamination in the cocoa farming area in Bahia,
there is a criminal action with the objective of introducing the witch`s broom infestation into the major cocoa producing area in Brazil."
I really had great zeal for my property and I faced difficulties with technical assistance.
I always sought for assistance at CEPLAC,
which was the office supposed to give us support but there were problems;
they said they didn`t have a car, or when they had a car, they didn`t have gas.
One day my employee came to me and told that there were some people from CEPLAC
I went out to meet them. When I arrived they were leaving the farm,
I was very happy thinking that they were doing what I had asked them before,
but they quickly got into the car
telling me that they were just bringing some people from Itabuna to visit the area.
A few days after that, I was arriving on my farm and my employee told me:
"it was found... it was found witch`s broom in some cocoa tree.
I wanted to see the tree and when I was walking through the fields,
I saw something tied to the cocoa trees. That caught my attention.
And I wondered who had done that?
It was not a child, because it had a knot.
So I thought it was some sort of witchcraft, I don`t know, I thought it could be something like that...
I was scared to touch it and take it away. Now I know it was witch`s broom,
but back then I didn't know what it was.
And there was no other way for the witch`s broom to be
introduced in our area if not criminally placed.
On this finding of infected branches tied up to healthy trees,
I myself found it here in Santa Ursula farm, in May 1990,
I found two cocoa trees with dry witch's broom tied onto them in the middle of their trunks. removed that witch's broom myself; other people also found it.
I removed that witch's broom myself; other people also found it.
The event involving witch's broom tied onto the cocoa trees happened near to União Farm,
somewhere between Posto Santo Antonio and Ubaitaba.
I checked it...because there was a complaint and I went there
and I saw the witch's brooms tied to the tree with its own bark vines, both in Buerarema and Ubaitaba.
I was part of the "Witch's Broom Committee", at CNPC, chaired by Salomão Mafuz.
He asked me to go out there and take some pictures,
and the day after I went there with my camera and took some pictures. Those pictures
Those pictures were given to CNPC, along with a video. Pictures end film.
In July 1990, CEPLAC again prepared an official request for actions to
The Office of the Attorney General, explaining that:
"...the number of grievance on the criminal actions, mainly through the media and the representative bodies, has grown in a frightening manner"
"...In May 1990, at Santa Cruz Farm, located in Itacaré, property of Mr. Tanure, it was found a "Vegetative Broom", in its biological state of "Dry Broom", it was criminally tied to a cocoa tree."
"...The event was detected by the agronomist engineers Roberto Araújo Setúbal e Milton José da Conceição, together with the agricultural technician Luiz Antonio dos Santo and the producer Soane Nazaré Filho."
"In the same month and year, the agronomist Nilton Pinto de Menezes and the farmer Antonio Pamponet
verified "Vegetative Broom" in biological state of "Dry Broom", tied in a cocoa tree at Sempre Firme Farm, property of Mr. Pamponent, located in Itacaré ..."
"...still in May of 1990, in Arataca, in the Alto Alianca region, on Bom Jardim Farm, owned by Mr. Gidevaldo José dos Santos, there were found by the agronomist Antonio Zózimo four witch's brooms in the state of "Dry Broom" tied to a cocoa tree ..."
Paulo Alvim was one of the most important cocoa research scientists.
In an interview to the newspaper "A Tarde" he said in 1990:
"we can say, almost for sure, that the insertion of this fungus has a strong criminal side.
We find in the field areas where people maliciously hung infected branches with witch's brooms on the trees."
As soon as I found out what was happening in the area, I asked for immediate actions.
I asked the Federal Police to open an investigation.
I don't know if any action was taken, because I'm no longer a congressman;
I came back to take care of my personal life and all I saw was the absurd failure left behind.
In the course of these meetings and conversations, and...
witch's broom bags in Sena Gomes' office, witch's brooms tied onto cocoa trees,
it was concluded that it was a crime, but we still don't know who the criminal was.
I read the Federal Police report and the statements show that it was found infected
intentionally tied on trees, which itself shows the intention of whoever did it,
I mean, it was not an accident, someone did it.
The person who did it...he knew what he was doing. And he was not joking around.
Of course, when we analyze it today, there is a whole scientific logistic supporting this idea.
We see the use of natural dispersal, slopes, hills, water-courses, sources of water...
It was found by technicians that in each 63 miles on the highway BR 101,
along the areas of water and air divisors, it could be found tied onto the cocoa trees.
Everything was contributing to the disease dissemination in a fast way.
So we see two contamination spots at the same time.
We saw inside the Panelinha creek a huge number of Dry Broom,
and then we conclude that it was an intentional introduction...
Whoever did it was certainly someone who knew how the disease behaved
and worked in a scientific logistic way to make its introduction and dissemination.
Through the facts, nobody has any doubts that it was an intentional introduction.
And then it determined the fast dissemination, able to destroy plantations in two, three years....
the cocoa trees in the region were all gone.
At that time no investigation was led by the Federal Police.
Despite the seriousness of that situation, only two search inquiries were conducted between
November 1989 and January 1990.
The reports indicated that the rural workers and the farmers themselves could be responsible
for the introduction of the fungus disease.
The researchers at CEPLAC rejected the hypothesis of an unintentional introduction
The simultaneous occurrence of many outbreaks in different areas far
from each other eliminates the possibility of an accidental dissemination.
The bag full of witch's broom samples found at CEPLAC
and the infected branches tied on the cocoa trees indicate a human action.
The evidences suggest a crime.
What actually happened was a biological crime
It was a hidden worldwide scandal, a barbaric crime, even coward.
The events that happened here were very serious.
It was a crime against humanity.
It was a terrifying fact and the world needs to know about it.
Then there was the recommendation plan from CEPLAC;
and nowadays we wonder if it was really some random mistakes
or a continuation of that horrible crime?
I would say that the criminal introduction of that fungus in this area
was only one of the aspects that should be labeled in its totality
as the real crime of the witch's broom.
Any times we are very passive when facing this situation, this region remained very passive.
We cannot allow that harm that devoured this region
and may also devour other ones continues as if nothing had happened.
We didn`t live a crises here. No, we didn`t! We lived a tragedy, an action of total destruction!
Everyone and every place are at high risk that this will happen again,
either with cocoa farming or any other plantation
because there was no punishment for this crime.
I think authorities around the world must demand effective action
from the Brazilian government for this cause.
So how can I accept all that?
I want a better country for my children,
I cannot accept it...accept such a situation.
I have the impression that it was an ideological behavior, wasn`t it?
In which they needed to eliminate the major cocoa producers in the area,
so they would obliterate the "rich people".
But they forgot that they also ruined people's jobs, they ruined the rural areas,
and most business opportunities. It impoverished a whole region.
Of course, it would be great if the Brazilian Government could identify the wrongdoers,
because it was a serious crime against a whole region, against the whole country.
It is a crime against humanity.
And our country wasn`t able to investigate and identify the guilty ones.
My name is Luís Henrique Franco Timóteo.
I was one of the responsible for the introduction of the witch's broom in Bahia.
CEPLAC should have been extinct.
And the intention was to keep twenty percent would have been fired.
of the workers CEPLAC
and the rest of them would have been fired.
So it was concluded that it was necessary t o show CEPLAC's relevance,
so the jobs could be saved and we could show Brazil,
show the public opinion and the Ministry of Agriculture
that CEPLAC was necessary to protect the cocoa agriculture.
The intention was to provide an alternative to this situation.
And the alternative we found was to show that CEPLAC was still functional.
And what would be its function? Fight this plague. Which plague?
The worst plague we have ever seen, the witch's broom.
It was agreed that we would bring samples of the witch's broom from Rondônia.
I would be the responsible one for doing that.
At that time, it was mentioned the existence of a Federal Agency named CAVAB.
I brought the witch's broom in about 250 to 300 infected branches.
And it was introduced in Luciano Santana's Farm, in Camacan, and also in Chico Lima's Farm.
To make sure that the witch's broom was already introduced at CEPLAC,
we put a bag on the director's table, along with a handwritten note...saying that they weren't paying attention because the witch's broom was already inside CEPEC.--
saying that they weren't paying attention because the witch's broom was already inside CEPEC.
In 1992, I received the money...
It was a total of 20 thousand dollars...In which 15 thousand was in Swiss Francs...
and...5 thousand in American Dollars.
The criterion was to spread the fungus from North to South, from East to West, like a cross,
in all farms in the region... from Gandu to Itamaraju would be infected.
In Ilhéus and in the neighboring surroundings. Canavieiras, Itacaré, Ibicaraí, Lomanto Júnior
would be infested. Therefore it began to be established the Southern Cross Operation.
Luís Henrique Franco Timóteo's disclosure was published in 2006 by Veja,
an important Brazilian magazine, causing the opening of an administrative
inquiry and a police investigation.
The Ministry of Agriculture registers the procedure as: BIOLOGICAL COCOA TERRORISM
The Federal Prosecutor Ronaldo Marques de Araújo was nominated as head of the committee.
Several documents could not be found at CEPLAC, including the administrative process opened
by the former regional superintendent, Mr. Carlos Vianna.
CEPLAC sent a fake dossier to the Inquiry Committee
Besides Carlos Vianna, other witnesses confirmed the finding of infected
branches tied to cocoa trees, among them the agronomist Antonio Zózimo de Costa,
who reported the event. Again this report could not be found at CEPLAC.
The note found at CEPLAC along with the bag containing witch's broom
samples was sent to the Federal Police, and it was no longer found.
The Inquiry Committee found evidences of irregularities committed by employees at CEPLAC
and recommended the opening of an administrative process,
along with two other workers who were suspected of a possible wrongful retention of documents.
In January 2007, the executive director of the Ministry of Agriculture
determines the opening of the administrative process.
To avoid the "involvement of powerful external forces,"
it was suggested that the Office of the Comptroller General indicated the members
of the process Committee.
In May 2011 the process was discontinued.
There is no more news about the opening of the administrative process.
Scientists and researchers confirm that the disease
was not only inserted but also disseminated by human hands.
Several witnesses and documents confirm the occurrence
of infected branches tied to cocoa trees.
There is no information about the pictures that were supposed to have been filed at
CEPLAC and at CNPC
Despite all the requests for actions made at that time,
it had a prescribed time. No one was indicted.
But given the evidences, the Federal Police assume the occurrence of crime and conclude:
"...there are no doubts that the insertion and dissemination of the witch`s broom
in the southern region of Bahia occurred as a deliberated human act"
BRAZIL - 1989. A different face of terror
"The criminal insertion of witch`s broom and the failure of the Recovery Program
caused a disaster that destroyed over 600.000 hec of cocoa in the south of BA
it declared bankruptcy of about 30.000 farms; it left 250.000 workers unemployed;
it forced 800.000 men, women, and children that used to live on the farms to move to the cities;
it contributed to help increase the slums in the cities;
it increased the social exclusion as well as criminality
and teenage prostitution;
It dismantled the economy of 93 cities
and even brought down millions of trees,
compromising the Rain Forrest biome in southern Bahia..."
No one was blamed
And there remained:
The victims, the damages, and the evidences, and the indifference of the Brazilian Government.
Dedicated to the victims of this crime