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((Hartley with two Haitian sugar cane workers.))

[Translations of three articles, one by the Spanish news agency EFE as published in El Nuevo Diario of Santo Domingo on April 24, two from Listín Diario of Santo Domingo for April 24 and 25. See originals here, here and here. Christopher Hartley is featured in the film “The Price of Sugar;” for more information, go here.]

US investigates priest’s claims of slave labor

Santo Domingo – The United States Department of Labor has opened an investigation in the Dominican Republic into charges by the priest Christopher Hartley, who claims sugar producers are subjecting workers in the industry to conditions of slavery, the US embassy reports. Hartley is currently outside the Dominican Republic but from 1997 to 2006 he worked in the bateyes, workers’ villages set up on sugar plantations, in the San José de los Llanos parish, in the eastern province of San Pedro de Macorís.

The Anglo-Spanish priest has for years made denunciations on the treatment of workers who cut sugar cane, most of whom are Haitian, by large companies.

He has accused them of human trafficking, child labor, racial discrimination and failure to provide health care, as well as of exploitation, fraud and labor abuse. (more…)

Lawsuit concerns deaths resulting from illegal work in cane harvest

[Translation of an article from Brasil de Fato for September 16. See original article here and related article here.]

The deputy labor division judge in Amambai, Antonio Arraes Branco Avelino, has ordered the companies Agrisul Agrícola Ltda and Companhia Brasileira de Açúcar e Álcool (CBAA) of Sidrolândia, known as the Santa Olinda mill, to pay compensation of five million reais [about 2.9 million US dollars] for personal injury and to stop contracting adolescent workers to harvest sugar cane. (more…)

With practically equal land areas, Alagoas and Haiti also have some historical similarities

[Translation of an article from Brasil de Fato of São Paulo for June 23.]

by Thalles Gomes

Ti Rivye Latibonit, Haiti – The number of those affected by the heavy rains that fell on Alagoas last Friday, June 19, is astounding . According to data released on June 21 by the state civil defense office, flooding of the Mundaú and Paraíba Rivers affected 177,282 people, leaving more than 600 missing and 26 dead. All told, 26 towns were damaged by the floods. These are alarming figures, but it would be insane, to say the least, to compare them with the 300,000 dead and more than one million homeless as a result of the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12. In this case, there is a valid comparison not because of the quantities but because of the quality. (more…)

[Translation of an article from the Brazilian Centro de Midia Independente for February 25.]

The Brazilian NGO Repórter Brasil has issued a report on the production of sugar in Brazil in 2009.  According to the report, the situation is alarming.  The cases of slave labor, violations of workers’ rights, damage to the environment and the invasion of indigenous lands are numerous. (more…)