Volkswagen's Brazil ranch probed for human trafficking; Catholic priest exposed it

SAO PAULO (OSV News) -- A decades-long fight for justice in Brazil may be nearing a historic verdict. A judge is expected to rule soon on whether German automaker Volkswagen is guilty of using slave labor at a cattle ranch it owned in the Amazon rainforest during the 1970s. A Catholic priest first denounced the alleged crimes against workers and tirelessly fought for justice.

The verdict is expected around what the United Nations observes as the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, falling on July 30.

Volkswagen operated Vale do Rio Cristalino Ranch in the city of Santana do Araguaia, in the Amazon rainforest, where it raised cattle. The farm's administration was accused by workers of practices that are common in situations of the crime of slave labor in Brazil, like the undue indebtedness of laborers and the use of violence -- including torture and homicides. Labor prosecutors are asking for a compensation of more than $29 million.

Father Ricardo Rezende was a young priest when he was sent to the Diocese of Santíssima Conceição do Araguaia, in the Amazonian Pará state. He became the region's coordinator of the bishops' conference's Land Pastoral Commission (known by the Portuguese acronym CPT). The commission was created in 1975 in order to accompany peasants and rural workers, a segment historically oppressed in the South American country, where a broad land reform has never been carried out.

In 1983, Father Rezende, who had already learned about the serious situation in Rio Cristalino farm, was informed that a group of young men had managed to escape the Volkswagen-operated ranch.

"Among the five workers who fled the farm, three were only 17. They were lured to work there not only because of a promised payment, but also because they were told that they would be able to play soccer there," Father Rezende told OSV News. While there was a soccer field on the farm, they never got close to it. They would just work all the time, he added.

The men told Father Rezende all about the hardships they faced at the ranch. Labor contractors drew them with the promise of a good pay, but they were submitted to indignant conditions.

They were forced to buy everything they needed from a store inside the farm, whose prices were outstandingly high. This way, when they asked for a pay that never arrived, they were informed they were really in debt with their employers.

"Indebted, they were not allowed to leave the premises," Father Rezende explained. The young men only succeeded in doing so by telling their bosses they had to go to the army barracks for military conscription, he described.

The men narrated that there was no proper healthcare attention and that workers were subjected to violence, and even homicide, when they tried to flee.

A massive investigation regarding the case was published by the Washington Post on July 23.

Volkswagen Brazil didn't respond to an interview request for the Post's article. In a statement sent to the paper, the company said it "categorically refutes and rejects all allegations" of abuses at the Vale do Rio Cristalino Ranch and "remains committed to the pursuit of justice."

Expedito Batista, a former Volkswagen factory worker in São Bernardo do Campo, was a São Paulo state lawmaker in 1983 when he was informed of the denunciation. He talked about it during official sessions and was invited by the German company to visit the farm, taking journalists and labor union activists along with him.

"They just wanted to show me the modern buildings they had recently built there. But I asked for a truck that could take me to a nearby city, where I would meet with Father Rezende and the local labor union leader," Batista told OSV News.

The vehicle had to take a road that was not part of the visit planned by Volkswagen. That's when Batista saw a farm truck carrying some people and asked for it to be stopped.

"A worker had his arms tied and was being taken by a labor contractor known as Abilão (Abílio Dias de Araújo). I ordered them to immediately release the man," Batista recalled.

Abilão argued that the worker was trying to escape the farm, but that he was in debt with it, so they had to get him back.

The visitors, now accompanied by Father Rezende, were able to identify a number of irregular practices. The priest, for instance, talked to a man -- who lived in a wooden shack -- that was visibly ill with malaria and begged him for help.

The administrator of the farm, Swiss-born Friedrich Georg Brügger, would repeatedly deny all accusations. But both Father Rezende and Batista had solid evidence of labor exploitation. The farm was also involved in environmental devastation, they said.

"Brügger gave me a paten made with brazilwood, whose exploitation was forbidden," the priest affirmed.

Batista, at the same time, was informed by a local worker that the farm was destroying broad areas of Amazonian rainforest in order to open terrain to raise cattle.

The denunciations of Batista and Father Rezende gained press attention, but they had no real consequences for Volkswagen. Father Rezende kept listening to workers, collecting hundreds of documents that proved Volkswagen's malpractices.

In 2019, the statute of limitations of most crimes described by the workers in the 1980s had already expired. Though many crimes occurred decades ago, Brazil considers slave labor a continuing violation with no statute of limitations. Father Rezende decided to bring the case to labor prosecutors and they decided to work on it.

The suit was opened in December 2024 and the hearings happened in May of 2025. A sentence is expected by the end of July. Father Rezende is confident that the company will be convicted.

"But the marks those workers carry till now will never disappear. That was a profoundly violent experience not only for them, but also for their families," he concluded.

Raimundo Batista de Souza, one of the victims, is also hopeful.

"I hope Volkswagen is held accountable for the crimes it committed. This would be a good thing, because it would prevent other families from falling into this kind of situation," he told OSV News.