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Article: Payback time: (Brazil's) debt ruled as unjust.
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- September 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AN unprecedented `court' held session in Brazil to pass sentence on the country's external debt. The jury ruled that the debt had already been repaid and that requiring continued payment is illegal, as is postponing development `in order to honor those commitments'.
The External Debt Tribunal drew 1,200 participants including Brazilian judges and lawyers, unemployed city dwellers and Pataxo indigenous people from the Amazon.
With a debt of $235 billion, Brazil is Latin America's most indebted country. `Between 1989 and 1997, Brazil paid $216 billion in interest, and today we still owe $212 billion,' a document released at the tribunal stated.
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