Brasília - Beginning this week, the searches for enslaved laborers in the states of Pará and Maranhão will be stepped up. Marcelo Gonçalves, coordinator of the Ministry of Labor's special mobile inspection group, believes that the death of four workers in an accident in Rondon, in Pará, demonstrates the necessity of making the inspections even more rapid and permanent. According to Gonçalves, the workers belonged to a group maintained in slave-like conditions on three properties where charcoal is produced.

The alleged recruter of the workers, Sérgio Venturini, attempted to remove them from the locale before the arrival of the Special Mobile Inspection Group. One of the trucks, transporting 14 people, turned over during the escape. The driver, two workers, and the wife of one of them didn't survive their injuries. The other victims were hospitalized and are doing well.

Between 1995 and 2003, Pará was the state in which the largest number of slave-like laborers were freed - around 4.6 thousand. Maranhão occupied fourth place, with 624 people discovered working in slave-like conditions.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Juliana Cézar Nunes
Translator: David Silberstein
09/01/2004