1) Information on Satanism and religious persecution in Brazil; 2) Are babies kidnapped from hospitals and sold abroad? 3) Is the present government democratic? Information on the government's human rights record; 4) Do Nazis promote Communism in Brazil?

1) Information on Satanism in Brazil could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC. For a report on religious freedom, please consult at your regional Documentation Centre the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: U.S. Department of State, 1989), chapter on Brazil, section on Religious Freedom. The section, however, makes no reference to Satanism and reports no cases of abuse of religious freedom. Various reports indicate threats and various problems faced by clerics or religious activists involved in politically sensitive social activities, such as advocacy of land reform -a situation faced by those who carry out such activities despite of their religious affiliation. For sources on this subject, please refer to question 4.

2) Information on child kidnapping from hospitals in Brazil could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC. However, the existence of a number of child-smuggling rings operating in Southern Brazil and the Rio de Janeiro area became known after the well publicized case of a 4-month old girl who was kidnapped from her home in Sao Paulo and sold in Paraguay to a foreign couple. [ "Smuggled baby Bruna back in Brazil", The Associated Press, 1 July 1988; "Brazilian girl kidnapped in 1986 and adopted by an Israeli couple returns home to Brazil", The Guardian, 30 June 1988.] Reports indicate the child-smuggling rings abduct or buy infants from mothers in impoverished areas, using either forged or legitimate documents and carrying out in a matter of weeks a procedure which normally takes several years. [ "Brazilian girl kidnapped...".] Some estimate that approximately 3,000 children are illegally sold abroad every year. [ "Smuggled baby Bruna...", July 1988.] One report states most of the smuggled babies are given up by their mothers, after being paid or pressured by people working for the trafficking rings. [ Ibid.] Young children are reportedly sold to foreign couples for up to US$25,000. [ Ibid and "Brazilian girl kidnapped...", July 1988.]

3) For a general view of the Human Rights situation in Brazil and comments on the characteristics of the Brazilian democracy, please consult at your regional Documentation Centre the following publications:

-Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: U.S. Department of State, 1989), chapter on Brazil;

-Critique: Review of the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: Human Rights Watch, July 1989), section on Brazil;

-Europa Year Book 1989, (London: Europa Publications, 1989), recent history section in chapter on Brazil;

-Amnesty Report 1989, (London: Amnesty International, 1989), section on Brazil.

For more information, please find attached the following

publications:

-Land Conflicts in Brazil, (Antwerp: Pax Christi International, November 1988), pp. 19-24;

-World Human Rights Guide, (London: The Economist, 1986),

pp. 39-41;

-Police Abuse in Brazil, (Washington: Americas Watch, December 1987), pp. 1-7;

-Brazil: authorized violence in rural areas, (London: Amnesty International, September 1988), pp. 1-5;

- The New York Times: "Democracy that suits the General", 10 April 1988; "Power, not law, still appears to rule brazil", 11 June 1987;

-"Brazil's military gain quietly what Pinochet demands loudly", in Latin American Weekly Report, 15 September 1988, p. 1.