by Evelyn Henderson

This is the provocative title of a unique video recently brought to Canada from Brazil by the Rev. Jaime Wright. Produced in the Third World, it was made to speak clearly to the First World, as both begin the celebration of the 500 years since Columbus "discovered" the Americas. It illustrates in vivid sequences the history of foreign debt in Latin America, which stands now at more than US $400 billion. It poses again the challenge to both Worlds to work for justice for all.

At the invitation of Ten Days for World Development--one of 12 Canadian church coalitions--Jaime Wright came to Canada specifically to appear on March 6 before a parliamentary committee which is looking at Canada's response to the international debt crisis. There could scarcely be a better witness than Wright, since Brazil has the largest external debt in the Third World, about US $104 billion. Interest payments have already amounted to US $157 billion--for 1988 alone the figure was US $17 billion, enough to build two tunnels under the English Channel. No wonder Brazilians feel the debt has already been paid.

Wright is a Presbyterian minister, son of American missionaries to Brazil. He was born there and is a Brazilian citizen, although he works professionally for the Presbyterian Church USA. Because he has been deeply involved in issues of human rights, Justice and peace for over 40 years, the social costs of Brazil's external debt are his constant concern. He has received many honours and awards in recognition of his service, from churches, cities and universities.

During the years of the military dictatorship (1964-85) he felt personally the brutality of the "worst period in Brazil's history." In 1973 his brother "disappeared," abducted by the military; he was tortured for almost 48 hours in a military prison and then killed. It was then that Wright appealed for help to Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, Archbishop of the Diocese of Sao Paulo, who invited him to work jointly in the field of human rights. So began a long and remarkable Catholic-Protestant association. Wright was assigned by his denomination to collaborate with Cardinal Arns, and together they denounced human rights violations in Brazil and neighbouring countries.

One major task they undertook was infinitely complicated and difficult locating the missing children of parents who had disappeared on behalf of the grandparents. Some of these children were born in jail and awarded as "war trophies" to childless military couples. By following a tangled network of leads, they were successful in 47 cases.

Another project was a top-secret five-year operation, supported by Cardinal Arns' diocese and the World Council of Churches. Thirty-five people, anonymous to this day, were involved in copying one million pages of Brazil's Supreme Court records covertly--records in which victims named torturers, places and dates. From this data a book was written under the title "Brasil: Nunca Mais" (Never Again), which appeared unannounced on July 15, 1985. By August 1 it had risen to No.1 on Brazil's non-fiction best-seller list, where it remained for 91 consecutive weeks--a record--exposing injustice at its roots.

Between 1975 and 1981 the Brazilian dictatorship, in common with many Third World governments, borrowed vast amounts of money from First World banks, which were then glutted with "petro-dollars" due to the high price of oil. Most of the money was squandered on huge public works (like dams), or "took flight" to private bank accounts abroad, or was spent on military goods. By 1982, when Mexico declared default on its debt payments, oil prices had fallen and bank interest rates had risen as high as 21 percent. Most indebted countries could not even pay the interest on their debt load.

Enter the International Monetary Fund. Originally designed to help overcome balance of payments problems, the IMF came to the "rescue" with loans made under stringent conditions. Governments had to agree to "structural adjustment": cutting social service budgets and state employment; spending less and exporting more, in order to earn the hard currency needed to service the debt. The misery of the people and exploitation of the environment induced by these terms became the nightmare of the international debt crisis. High unemployment, low wages, disease, hunger, death, swollen slums as people crowd into the cities, stratospheric inflation (February 1990 was 72 percent), violence, repression--the litany is grim. As the economy stagnates, control by foreign banks and multi-national corporations create dependency.

John Kenneth Galbraith describes the situation as "the most astounding process of impoverishment of the poor for the sake of further enrichment of the rich." Commercial bank loans to the Third World represent a mere six per cent of their portfolios.

In his statement to the parliamentary committee, Wright offered a conclusion formulated in hope by the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil: "As a consequence of this holy struggle, (it) believes that a new world order will come into existence, impregnated with justice, humanity and solidarity; protecting human dignity, assuring the preservation of the environment; and the exercise of (national) sovereignty."

Wright has left us with the video "The Debt Game: Who Owes Whom?" Two years in the making, it was carefully produced by four Spanish and four Brazilian non-governmental and church groups to sensitize us in the First World to see Latin America in a different way. In the light of 500 years of colonialism and "development," it is a good question after all: who does owe whom in the debt game?

Converted January 10, 2002 - Lg

This article is an archival copy of the printed one in the Peace and Environment News (PEN). Viewpoints expressed should not be taken to represent the opinions of the Peace and Environment Resource Centre, the PEN, or our supporters.