BRASILIA (Reuters) – The Brazilian government apologized on Thursday for mistreating Afro-Brazilian families that were forcible moved from their coastal home in northern Brazil four decades ago to make way for the construction of a spaceport.
The Alcantara base run by the Brazilian Air Force is the rocket launching site of Brazil’s space program where the South American country hopes to draw private companies putting small satellites into orbit.
But in 1980 some 300 families, known as “quilombolas” or members of communities started by runaway slaves, were relocated by the Air Force and their land was expropriated. They were never given title to the land where they were taken.
“The Brazilian state publicly declares its apology to the quilombola communities that remain in Alcantara,” the government said in a statement, announcing that funds would be made available in reparation for the mistreatment.
The apology came as a complaint by quilombola communities reached the Inter-American Human Rights Court, which held a public hearing in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday and Thursday.
The court said it would not comment until the case was adjudicated.
Lawyers for the quilombolas argued Brazil violated their right to their traditional lands, denied them title and never consulted them before building the space center.
The launching site has hardly been used since 1980, though the first private rocket was launched last month by South Korean aerospace and defense company Innospace.
Brazil’s Senate ratified in 2019 an agreement with the United States to safeguard U.S. space and defense technology, allowing U.S. rocket companies to use Alcantara which is located close to the Equator and offers lower launching costs.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
