Brazilian Chief, Cabinet Tours Shantytown

www.heraldtribune.com By ADALID CABRERA LEMUZ Associated Press Writer

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva swore last year that if elected, he would bring his cabinet ministers face to face with the poverty that afflicts a third of all Brazilians. On Friday, he made good on that promise.

Mobbed by adoring crowds, Silva and 30 of his ministers walked down the narrow paths past the mud huts of the Irma Dulce shantytown, shaking hands and sharing hugs. Sweating in the intense heat, Silva promised residents he would work hard to ease their misery through government programs to end hunger and provide clean water.

"I cannot promise that all your problems will be solved from one day to the next," Silva told a crowd of about 5,000 residents of the favela, as shantytowns are known here. "But I do promise that a lot can and will be done."

Silva's visit was a powerful symbol to a country where the gap between rich and poor is among the widest in the world. It was the first time in recent memory that a sitting president visited a favela, and the scene was broadcast live on national television.

"Most of us voted for him because we have faith that he will be able to solve our problems," said Zilma Silva, who is not related to the president. "It is horrible to live in a country where so many people don't have anything to eat."

Silva, like most of the 30,000 people who live in the Irma Dulce favela, gets by on her husband's monthly wage of $66. She has no running water.

For Silva, who grew up in a Sao Paulo favela, it was something of a homecoming.

"I saw a four-year-old boy whose arms were thinner than my finger," Silva said. "This means he has nothing to eat and probably has learning difficulties because of a lack of vitamins. This is what we will change."

The former metal worker who rose to fame organizing strikes against the country's 1964-85 military regime became Brazil's first working class president after being elected in a landslide on Oct. 27. It was his fourth try.

The trip was originally designed to kick off Silva's "Zero Hunger" program, which seeks to eradicate hunger among the estimated 54 million Brazilians who live on a dollar a day or less.

The launch of the anti-hunger program was put off until February - a fact that did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowds that turned out to greet Silva.

Jose Graziano, who heads the program, said the visit demonstrated the government's determination to "improve the peoples' quality of life, no matter what it takes."

Graziano has said the government would spend about $1.5 billion on the program this year alone, and that the amount could grow with donations or loans from sources outside Brazil.