IMPUNITY: it’s been 4 years since Vale’s criminal tragedy that took away 272 lives in Brumadinho, Brazil, but still no justice has been made

• The rupture of the iron ore tailings dam in Brumadinho happened on January, 25, 2019.
• No one has been held accountable so far.
• The criminal action is at a legal impasse created by two of the defendants, including Vale’s former president, Fabio Schvartsman.

Family members of victims and those affected by the breach of the dam become more revolted, ill and eager for justice, each year that it is not carried out for the tragedy that seems to have doomed the city to endless pain. Nevertheless, the association which represents them, an NGO named AVABRUM, keeps on its tireless struggle for justice, memory and the finding of all 272 fatal victims (being two unborn children) who were buried alive under the mud. There are still three victims whose bodies haven’t been found yet by the firefighters who work at site since day one of the disastrous event.

Every 25th day of each month, since the tragedy, AVABRUM’s associates get together to stage a demonstration in honor of the victims and to protest against the lack of justice. In the event of the disaster’s fourth anniversary, they have prepared a series of actions to call societies’ attention to their struggle. There will be a bicycle ride from Brumadinho to Córrego do Feijão (actual site where the iron ore mine was located), a cortege by car around the town’s main streets, a seminar about cities impacted by mining, and a mass followed by a demonstration with the exhibition of videos telling stories of the past 4 years.

The path of the injustice

The year of 2022 was a particular one concerning the progress of criminal actions filed against the Brazilian mining company Vale, and the German certification company Tüv Süd. In Brazil, there were 16 executives denounced in court for qualified homicide, 13 from Vale and 3 from Tüv Süd.

In January 2020, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Minas Gerais (MPMG), based on investigations carried out in conjunction with the police, made the denounce of the two companies and its executives, including the former president of Vale, Fabio Schvartsman, former directors of the mining company, and executives of Tüv Süd. They have been charged with intentional, double-murder, 270 times (justice denies the inclusion of the two children who died in their mothers’ wombs), as well as environmental crimes against fauna, flora and pollution. The MPMG concluded that the defendants knew that there was a risk of disruption and did not take action, setting up the crime. The complaint was upheld by the Court of Brumadinho in February 2020. In October 2021, however, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) accepted Fabio Schvartsman’s appeals and sent the lawsuit to the Federal Court.

This maneuver accomplished by the defendant’s lawyers to retard even more the trials have been recently ratified by brazilian’s Supreme Court of Justice (STF). Yet another defeat for the families, who now have to deal with the fact that criminal action is back to square one. 

“This STF decision invalidates all the progress we have made in the investigations in the courts of Minas Gerais until now. It only serves to postpone justice and protect the powerful companies Vale and Tuv Süd. It is a real affront to the families of those who died due to the greed and negligence performed by such corporations”, declares AVABRUMS’ board of directors.

Meanwhile, in Germany, there are two lawsuits against Tüv Süd filed in Munich – the company’s headquarters city – by Brazilian offices, representing families of victims and those affected by the dam collapse. Both processes are in the evaluation phase of the German court, after pronouncements of the prosecution and defense.

Brumadinho Legacy

Besides what happened in Brumadinho being totally unacceptable, especially having occurred a few years after the collapse of the Samarco dam, in Mariana (another city in the state of Minas Gerais), now, the worst scenario would be to suffer the same disregard on the part of the Brazilian justice system, as has been the case for seven years since the Mariana disaster.

Before the tailings mud tsunami that invaded Brumadinho, activists tried to prevent Vale from obtaining an environmental license. Later, more local groups were formed, such as AVABRUM. In march of 2022, the NGO conceived the Brumadinho Legacy Project*, an initiative in memory of the 272 victims of the biggest humanitarian tragedy of Brazil,  in an attempt to establish a new mindset in society concerning the importance of health and safety at work policies. The project  launches a broad program of actions including training, communication, publicity and news spreading so that tragedies like these won’t get lost in the shuffle of the global agenda. Their motto is: Today, you can save lives. Tomorrow, it might be too late.

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* Project carried out with resources allocated by the Management Committee for Moral Damage Collective paid as social compensation for the rupture of the dam in Brumadinho in 25/01/2019, which claimed 272 lives.

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#avabrum, #brumadinho, #justice, #legadodebrumadinho