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Volkswagen could face authorized motion in Brazil over alleged human-rights violations within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties
Workers who labored at a Brazilian ranch run by German carmaker Volkswagen within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties have been subjected to “grave and systematic” abuses, prosecutors in Brazil have alleged.
Stories emerged in German media on the weekend that authorities within the South American nation are investigating occasions that occurred greater than 4 many years in the past at Fazenda Rio Cristalino within the Amazon rainforest.
On Tuesday, the lead prosecutor within the case, Rafael Garcia, detailed the alleged human-rights violations on the ranch, which had been provided to Volkswagen for buy and growth by the navy dictatorship that dominated Brazil at the moment.
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The laborers have been lured to the farm within the northern state of Para with false guarantees of excessive pay, and have been then pressured to chop down the jungle in harsh situations to free house for the German agency’s cattle ranch, Garcia informed AFP. There, they have been “systematically, bodily abused” by the armed guards, he added.
“Staff who tried to flee have been overwhelmed, tied to bushes and left there for days,” the prosecutor mentioned. “Those that tried to slide into the forest by no means got here again – there have been merely tales that they’d been killed.”
The accusations in opposition to Volkswagen stem from a three-year-long probe by a particular job pressure that was assembled after an area Catholic priest got here ahead and spoke concerning the alleged abuse on the ranch.
Witnesses informed investigators that “one employee tried to flee, however the gunmen caught him. As punishment, they kidnapped his spouse and raped her,” Garcia mentioned.
“One other employee tried to flee and was shot within the leg. One more was left sure and bare,” he added.
In response to the prosecutor, the laborers have been stored in “debt-slavery” on the farm as they have been pressured to purchase meals and provides from an area retailer for unfairly excessive costs.
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A few of the victims have additionally allegedly died of malaria as a result of lack of correct medical care.
The prosecutors have summoned Volkswagen’s representatives for an preliminary viewers on June 14. The edges will attempt to attain a settlement throughout that assembly. In the event that they fail to search out frequent floor, expenses in opposition to the German carmaker could also be pressed.
Volkswagen mentioned earlier that it was taking the allegations “very significantly,” however avoided additional remark “as a result of potential authorized proceedings in Brazil.”
The German agency had already agreed to pay $6.4 million in 2020 as compensation for serving to Brazil’s secret police observe down left-wing opposition members and union leaders through the navy dictatorship between 1964 and 1985. Many of those have been detained and tortured.
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