Price Of Sugar Documentary

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] I arrived in the Dominican Republic September of 97. I had no idea of the magnitude of all that I was going to confront [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign town of losianos in the Dominican Republic is the center of Father Christopher Hartley's Parish [Music] every day he goes out to the sugar plantations to the tiny Villages known as Bates where Dominicans rarely go one of the first things I was told some of the people in the Dominican Republic came to me and said by the way remember that you're not allowed into the vicini batayes took me three months to master the courage to go into the sugar cane fields [Music] so much fun [Music] the growing and harvesting of Dominican sugar cane is has done almost entirely by laborers from Haiti [Music] [Applause] what father Christopher saw in the plantations he began to document [Music] foreign [Music] gradually I began to learn more about their situation what I discovered was truly appalling [Music] foreign foreign [Music] ers American doctors to see what they can do to help it's okay what he's curing this wound with with toothpaste really these are some of the worst conditions that I've ever seen this is really extreme poverty you know families are living without access to water without access to food without access to you know really any health care or any infrastructure at all [Music] the Haitian workers are under armed guard they are not allowed to leave the plantations people come here in the hope of a better life the truth of the matter is that they make less than 90 cents a day and instead of cash they receive vouchers which they can redeem for high-priced food at a company store he was told that he was going to make a very good wage when he was born as a very young man in 1976 and he realizes that the end of his life is going to come here the pate and he has absolutely nothing that's the expression that he used in Spanish I have nothing walkie has is the roof that the company has put over his head lets him stay for as long as he is useful [Music] the Dominican Republic is a vacationer's paradise Europeans and Americans flock here in the winter months [Music] but just Inland from the coast are the sugar plantations 250 000 Acres of them the country's most important agricultural industry the Dominican Republic shares a Caribbean island with Haiti [Music] it was here that African slaves were first used in the Americas to cut sugar cane the two Nations make uneasy Neighbors Haiti is one of the most dysfunctional countries in the world Rife with poverty and violence to Haitians the Dominican Republic though itself a poor country offers the promise of survival [Music] there are five large sugar companies in the Dominican Republic the vicini family which owns most of the plantations in Father Christopher's Parish is one of the wealthiest [Music] people working for my hand many people will complaining many many maybe weak you got housed there oh my God every kind of house is 40 20 million 10 million in the house and 40 million beautiful house the vicini family's business interests extend beyond sugar include banking property and the media [Music] Gustavo Pena is the editor of clave digital an online newspaper that has managed to maintain its independence democratically is [Music] in fact the second Victini to run the family sugar business Juan Bautista was president of the Dominican Republic in the early 1920s the network of Eugenie corporations is currently run by Juan Bautista and Felipe vicini despite their prominence they keep out of the public eye there are a few published photographs of the family and they are rarely mentioned in the Press [Music] the vicini refused to be interviewed for this film [Music] is Anna matila Laura works for the TV station tele on tias is [Music] father of Christopher is on his way to the Haitian border with Father Pedro rukwa a Belgian priest who has been helping the sugar cane workers here for 30 years they want to see for themselves how the sugar companies bring Haitians into the country are recruited by water called buscornis for work for the companies go across the border into Haiti and recruit approximately 30 000 men every harvest season [Music] their Journey takes them far from the tourist Resorts and the sugar plantations up into the mountains near the border with Haiti [Music] father Christopher knows where the buscone spring the Haitians across because of a tip-off from a bikini employee how we got wind of this story is actually very ironic this Haitian could work as one of the buscones came to me complaining that the person for whom he had rounded up 200 men had not paid him so in other words he was a slave Merchant who had not received his reward and was coming to the priest asking for justice meaning so we brought Dario into my house and with a video camera we asked him to tell us the whole story [Music] the government's complicity in human trafficking is obvious as soon as the priests reached the Army Post near the frontier [Music] by Nightfall father Christopher and father Pedro reached the Border camp here Haitians are made to wait until they can be shipped to the plantations [Applause] foreign the man who directs the shipment of Haitians to the Victini cane Fields is named Mary Tay [Applause] e [Music] okay [Music] these people have been lured across the border with Tales of good jobs are so desperate they've even paid maritay's men to bring them here [Music] um [Music] foreign but espinal has been brought across the border for only one purpose to cut Cane to have documents or identity cards are stripped of them they are now stateless illegal and subject to arrest everywhere in the Dominican Republic except on the plantation they are passed into the pattayas until three o'clock in the morning so they do not know where they are and therefore cannot Escape cannot run away [Music] now hey concentration camp and we're going to be able to do this see I don't see why not we're going to get into a lot of trouble [Music] no no shoot as fast as you can because you don't know how many seconds you're gonna have before you're kicked out the sooner we can get out of here guys the better ready hold on well guys I hope it was useful this is where they're going to put the workers when they arrive anywhere from 60 to 100 people will be crammed into this one Barrack you can see all the wiring up on the top which is to prevent them from escaping at night and they will have armed men at the door of the barracks at night so they don't attempt to flee uh the barrack in the night the days are like a state within a state because the company there is the police is the government they exercise absolute authority over the lives of those who dwell here which is quasi-slavery [Music] is thank you [Applause] as many as a million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic no one knows for certain how many live in the pate [Music] good morning foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] dwellers get much of their calories from chewing sugar cane their diet often leads to malnutrition foreign [Music] siente helicopter [Music] most of this product ends up in the United States the United States purchases the raw material it's processed the refineries in the United States and it ends up on the American table I'm sure most American families would be very embarrassed to know at what price they put sugar in their coffee every morning [Music] [Music] um foreign [Music] [Music] family have a lot of blood on their hands this is well known nobody dares speak out and say it because many people fear for their lives or the lives of their loved ones and and this is a fact people disappear people are never found in an unmarked corner of the vicini plantation is a cemetery Dominicans don't know of this Cemetery I only found this place about seven eight months ago and I've been here for seven years and nobody had ever mentioned it it's like a taboo place you're standing on people's bodies all of this it's not just where you see crosses some are very obvious you can just see those those slumps why all of a sudden there's no grass over there I mean this is this is tropical weather Everything grows in five minutes this is the man who was murdered the night of December 7th he was beaten as he was climbing into the bus to come across the border and he was found dead on arrival at the Virginia called copayito [Music] Dario told the priest that mirite the richini's chief Plantation guard was a cruel and brutal man Mary a welcome one um [Music] there was a struggle because there were many many hundreds of people trying to get into these buses and clearly not enough buses this individual couldn't make it through the door of the bus [Music] hit him with a stick across the chest that he was so eager to get into the bus that he crawled in and when he did just let him go when they arrived here in copayito this man still lying down they're gonna shake him and he's dead [Music] the next day a body was dumped in the unmarked cemetery foreign but believing you know what happened and proving it are different matters the weakness of the case is the link between the physical violence and the fact that this was the same person that you heard of that but he wasn't present when they found the man dead and he wasn't present at the burial so we would need an autopsy we would need the permit from the judge especially being a Haitian a judge is going to be very reluctant to take the case of a crime that could directly or indirectly be attributed to the vicini company the vicini family have been directly many times tried to pressure me to not go into the Buddhist in fact that's one of the great fears of the Spanish Embassy the American Embassy is that what would happen if they stop you they deliberately and explicitly forbid you from entering the Mateus and I've always said I would certainly go anyway I don't care what they did to me and they know very well how determined I am to change the system [Music] January 20th the year 2000 I was here in my residence when this lady comes to say father president Fernandez is coming tomorrow to batego theater for some political activity and that is the custom end of the Dominican Republic they always invite the priest to give an invocation which is a prayer to invokes God's blessing on the president on the people and so on and what was supposed to be a simple blessing became a five-page speech I was very brave the night I wrote it and I was shivering with fear when I suddenly had to read out the words that I had very courageously written [Music] I was describing the horrible living conditions and telling the president that he had come to the threshold of hell [Music] [Applause] [Music] the publicity forced the vicini into discussions with the church for three years the family held meetings with a committee that included the priests the bishop and the church's lawyer Noemi Mendes election president [Music] and then came the death threat [Music] [Music] foreign father Christopher's upbringing is in stark contrast to the situation he is now confronting his mother Pilar is from the Spanish aristocracy the daughter of account her family includes a marquee an ambassador and even a prime minister his father's family founded the famous British company Hartley's Jam we'd been married for five years living in London and our three children were born in London and we came to live here in 1964. and we've been very happy foreign Virginia and William Billy at school if we were in any sort of trouble we could say we'll call Christopher and he will you know fix this fight very quickly you know so we did I I definitely felt protected by him and he was very much there for us in in school so he did have already kind of a strong personality that he was kind of respected you know and not only some personality but also strong strong he was physically so he was a sportsman he was very competitive in his Sports so he always wanted to win he really was very competitive he had so much energy you know we couldn't stop him and then sometimes you know we asked him to do something and uh he was a little bit uh how do you say rebelled he was a rebel he was always getting into trouble he was very difficult [Music] but when he was 15 years old Christopher had an experience that would change his life foreign I have never told anyone the story of my vocation because I do not know how to put into words what happened to me all I know is I sat on the edge of my bed and I realized I was was a very unhappy person with no reason whatsoever to be unhappy at that point I realized that God loved me and that I wanted to give my whole life to him foreign he said to me Mommy I want to go to a seminary and I started laughing because I thought really is the last thing I can hear from him you know the summary yes you I said come on don't joke come on and he looked at me in such a way I can't forget it you know his eyes like that I say Mommy I'm going to go to summary because the Christ asked me to follow him and I'm going to follow him then in that moment in the way he looked at me I understood that was serious well if your son says that he's going to be an engine driver or a mass poisoner or something you can you can demonstrate you can talk to him and you can if he says he wants to be a priest it's very difficult you can't say a priest is intrinsically a bad thing to be you're not going to earn any money I mean so I found myself as far as that goes at a dead end there's no nothing you could you can't really answer that one the type of society that I grew up in you know very exclusive very privileged may seem many times like you know throwing away a phenomenal future but this year it's going to be 30 years that I entered the summary and I have never had a doubt [Music] [Music] s of 1976 and I will where they spent a year year and a half in the Seminary one of the gifts was a book from my father and it was about Mother Teresa for the most striking images about the horrible misery of the streets of Calcutta [Music] when I saw those photographs never said anything to anybody but deep down in my heart I recall distinctly as saying I want to spend the rest of my life doing exactly this [Music] I met Mother Teresa for the first time in August of 1977 I was 18. I volunteered to work in one of her shelters in the outskirts of London I remember her very distinctly saying love the poor and be holy love the poor and be holy and that was like carved in my brain like chiseled with fire so the next 20 years working for Mother Teresa once working in the home for the dying in Calcutta I remember there was this man brought from a gutter was obviously going to live Not Another Day Mother Teresa told me Christopher take care of him at lunch time we were told we all had to go home I wanted to stay but I was forced to go home we all had to have lunch I was sure that when I came back in the afternoon to work there he would be dead when I came back he was barely alive and from his little cot he looked at me he stretched his arms out and I held his hands in my hands and his last words just before he he died where I've been waiting for you and in a sense that is what every poor person says to me with words without words with different words I have been waiting for you [Music] [Applause] fear and hatred of Haitians has long been a part of Dominican Society almost every day the media reports on acts of violence around the country [Music] [Applause] for many Haitians the Bates however deprived are the only place they can feel safe [Music] [Music] [Music] please [Music] the first thing we did was begin eating centers in the spring of 2001. we had nothing we didn't have a kitchen kids brought a plate and a spoon from their homes and we just started feeding people this piece of property was given by the government to the church unfortunately when the sugarcane companies realized they brought in the military to basically throw me out I was very forceful I insisted that they were the ones who were supposed to leave and I would not move I was very fortunate that the Dwellers of the but they encouraged by my stand the especially women all gathered around me and started screaming at the military supporting me finally the military gave in and they never came back again but just to be on the safe side our first major investment at a tremendous expense was to build this very high wall around the property because unfortunately in places where the rule of law does not exist walls speak much more eloquently than signatures [Music] father Christopher raised money from the Spanish government to build a compound in the middle of bate Paloma and began to serve meals on a grand scale we're at present feeding over 450 children every day Monday through Friday [Music] the only decent meal that they're going to have in the whole day [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the bikini had the intention of beginning the Harvest this season without telling them the price per ton of sugarcane that they were going to be paid or they'll find out on first payment day that did anybody ever take up a job without knowing how much they were going to be paid I went to everybody and I said nobody works it was the first rank he started with a strike the head of the vicini plantation guards Mary Tay tries to intervene again they tried to avoid as much as they can a direct confrontation with me because psychologically on the employees it looks very negative if they have a confrontation and they lose every confrontation because I don't budge it also would be very negative if I lost one of these confrontations that's why I always try to be very sure that what I'm doing is right it might be dangerous it might be risky but it has to be right because that's my only protection Domingo foreign we began to explain to them some of the teachings of the church which sometimes are even very unknown to Catholics but the church in the second Vatican Council of all documents says that workers have a right to strike [Music] come here yeah yeah after strikes in 23 Bates the vicini concede to the workers demands and tell them how much they will be paid even giving them a small pay raise but there would be consequences [Music] this year has been a terrible drought and they had plenty of fires which they're trying to blame on me [Music] it is [Music] foreign [Music] I have been threatened several times the last one was only about a week ago the message that was sent to me was tell the Reverend that one day someone's gonna find him lying other sugarcane fields with his mouth full of flies and the other uh was a threat especially nasty because what it implied is uh We're not gonna hurt you they're going to hurt the people who work with you okay okay [Music] where I said May everyone be aware that this has happened I want to make it very clear that nothing absolutely nothing in this world is going to stop me [Music] foreign yeah father Christopher's latest effort at helping the Haitians gives his enemies an opportunity to attack him [Music] for 15 years Vicente lived in bate La redonda in a dark and Tiny Shack [Music] [Music] after years of struggle father Christopher has been able to persuade the Dominican government to provide a few new houses in bate Gautier [Music] the first houses that we build we build with government money it is the first time in the history of this country that the government has invested a dime in building a home for a Haitian in the end fewer than half the homes were given to Haitians but now Vicente lives in a three-room house complete with indoor plumbing [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] although most of the houses at Gautier were given to Dominicans word spreads that the priest is being unfair to the locals [Applause] thank you [Applause] guys [Applause] trabajo foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] but it's something I've learned to live with so I very seldom think about it I don't think the times that I've experienced fear has ever changed my life in any shape or form s [Applause] the turmoil and father Christopher's Parish attracts the attention of the media in the United States and Europe [Music] foreign Dominican reporters cover the story is foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] like Father Christopher he is under attack for defending Haitian cane workers after he is physically assaulted Amnesty International starts a campaign in his defense [Music] despite letters from human rights groups around the world the Secretary of the Interior and police refuses to take the complaint seriously is when father Pedro finally meets with the secretary he is ridiculed in front of the press [Music] the message is clear priests who advocate for the Haitians will have no guarantee of protection from the government as events have unfolded in the past months the sugarcane industry has been trying to pressure me and the people who work with me to basically back off and to leave things the way they are [Music] you're broken are you reasonable real Padre Christopher is foreign because I know that he's not going to stop he is very much an All or Nothing person and if he has to [Music] um hedge his ideals I think it would be very sad I'd rather see him go out true to his beliefs then hang around not being true to his beliefs the Dominican media rarely supports the Haitians Consuelo desperadel has two shows a day and she is not shy about speaking her mind is I've been accused of every possible seeing crime immorality that you could possibly conceive through a smearing campaign the church is fully aware that this is a staged campaign and the bishop is not going to give in the vicini pressure the bishop to remove father Christopher but Bishop ozoria has stated publicly that he supports his priest questions [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] father Christopher's comments rarely make the Dominican news completely is accusations remember foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I have 700 square miles of a parish with 60 Villages and Bates I travel just about every afternoon to a different village to celebrate Holy Mass today he has brought the American doctors to El mangito to help his Dominican parishioners this is these are Dominicans it seems like people no no no they they own the land this is their piece of property generation after generation they're not rich maybe they're just a sport you can see the houses yeah yeah and you own the place how do these folks feel about the Haitians uh historically there's a tremendous hostility toward the Haitian remember that this country never became independent from Spain it became independent from Haiti when the Spaniards left the island they abandoned the island Haitians moved in for 22 years so their freedom their independence is from Haiti so they they view them as the aggressor Etc and then of course there's the question of race they see them but they're just a little more black than they are so they're just about the only people they can look down upon is there a poorer and Blacker I've been in many places in the Dominican Republic and in many other developing countries I've been taken to places where people have said oh look at this isn't this terrible isn't this tragic isn't this poor and you know they really all bail in comparison to the patease [Music] foreign [Music] father Christopher arranges for the American doctors to hold a clinic for the children of three Bates [Music] rates of AIDS here are among the highest in the world this is a real hot spot now and the rates are increasing over half of the adults have tuberculosis and we know that over a quarter of the children here have had tuberculosis many women die prior to giving birth or in childbirth and we know that infant mortality and children who die in the first month after birth or at Birth is just incredibly High and what's really tragic about those numbers is that we know how to treat all those conditions we know how to prevent them and we know how to treat them and the treatments are simple and they're cheap and what's truly tragic is how very few of those simple basic life-saving interventions are getting out here to the people who need them the most skin disease is bacteria this is not also malnutrition is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Music] besides the help the church provides There is almost no outside Aid to the Haitian cane workers in this Parish [Music] just three Peace Corps volunteers work in the vastacini plantations I have never had a sit-down conversation with Juan Bautista Virginia most of my work comes from is with people at lower levels the administrative head of this region of bactase I work very closely with him possibly closer than father Christos because he's working with them at a very high level change this pay them more uphold your health care commitments uphold and my work here is about really my neighbors how can we make their lives better tomorrow so that's an easier question to go to them with okay we want to do a garden can we get some seeds that's an easier thing than change your entire system of existence I like water again father Christopher comes off as kind of proud and that kind of in my opinion a little bit can be kind of brash like who do you think you are you know aren't the issues more complicated than that don't the vaccines have a right to at least have a sugarcane industry maybe they they owe their workers more than they're giving them but don't they have the right to be doing this or don't they have some rights too and and he's just so committed to the rights of the people that that sometimes it's easy to imagine he's not really that balanced it's the beginning but I think at his core he is humble Beyond anyone I've ever known because none of this is for him he's in it to change the system that causes people to live in poverty while a billion dollar company profits off of it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] another problem with not having papers is that they're trapped on the pate if these people tried to go move to Santo Domingo or even travel throughout the country they are stopped every hour on public transportation hauled into prison for however you know a week two weeks three weeks and then deposited back in Haiti not at their house just across the border wherever wherever the the military may see fit to deposit them so it's a huge problem because it keeps people trapped here Australia [Music] [Music] with no hope for a better life [Music] this is the residence of the administrator Mr Ricardo Hernandez who is the ultimate responsible for the entire process from the mateys to the Sugar Mill he has about 25 to 30 000 people under his care his responsibility one of his main responsibilities is to make sure that the people that they bring across the border into the Sugar Mill into the Bates into the sugarcane Fields never leave so at any cost he has to make sure that these people remain here and do not Escape because they've invested money in in bringing them over for this particular uh purpose the this agricultural activity have you ever spoken I've spoken to him many many times he he basically hates me he hates anybody that interferes with his business and with his job he would be very happy that I went around everybody and he would be my best friend if all I did was celebrate Mass instead father Christopher and the church's lawyers have been organizing the bete Dwellers to stand up for their rights by working together the Bates have gained some concessions from the vicini leading today's meeting is Johnny belizarre representing bate canepa is yela machasa [Music] [Applause] one of the things that have changed is now people enjoy a freedom of movement and I actively encourage the workers who are unhappy to leave [Music] with the guns gone Haitians can now leave the Bates but without papers they still risk arrest and expulsion [Music] who dare to flee pass through the town of losianos where father Christopher lives lucianos has become the center of the vicini campaign to have the priest expelled from the country [Music] is foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] I am haitianizing this country and I am antagonizing Dominicans and Haitians the ones who are funding the campaign the vicinis who are funding this campaign by accusing me of haitianizing this country are the only ones who cannot live without them [Applause] the likelihood of Father Christopher being forced out increases dramatically when news breaks about his colleague father Pedro rookwa after 30 years of working with Haitian cane cutters death threats and the lack of protection have forced father Pedro to abandon his mission and leave the country [Music] [Music] [Applause] and now the company has made it clear to the Haitians that improved conditions will remain only as long as father Christopher is there to protect them [Music] yes but for the leaves this is um a phrase that the company continually repeats the workers things are the way they are because he is here but just wait until he is gone and we will remind you who is in charge of this law losses Christopher is day by day protest mount Jose De Luciano [Laughter] [Music] we go this is foreign foreign foreign [Music] it's fine [Music] I think it's very important for me to be present for for them to to know that there is leadership that there is presence that I have not gone is I can't just leave the battle to to my parishioners foreign [Music] personality of what his mission is but there is you know very much a human person behind with with the pain of being very lonely in what he's doing of being feeling very misunderstood feeling inadequate in what he's trying to do as a man struggling there you know very lonely very often [Music] oh my God [Music] do you do [Music] in a country where people are working for almost nothing the bikinis have spent an absolute Fortune thus far I God knows how much they're ready to spend in the days to come in getting me out of the country [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is a massive demonstration plan for the streets of losianos and the possibility of a violent confrontation is high [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] at the center of the rally is the television host Consuelo Desperado all right missions arrived from the Bates to support father Christopher [Applause] they gather in the church with a crowd of Dominican supporters [Music] but outside protesters Assemble temperatures foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] if I give in what am I saying to the worker says you're the priest you have all the means at your disposal and you couldn't stand the pressure but you come to us and you tell us to not be afraid I think I would be a fraud if I took even one step back [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] foreign beautiful things for me is to see the support and the backing of the community if the community had backed my accusers I would certainly be history today [Applause] [Applause] oh my gosh [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Johnny has been fired he and his family have been threatened with the eviction from their home but without legal status they are unable to go elsewhere to make a living and the attacks on Father Christopher continue [Music] I would like to be buried in the clandestine Cemetery because I think that's where I belong for those unnamed tombs without even maybe a crossing a prayer these are my people I have come to live in solidarity with them and whatever happens to them I would like it to happen to me [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm in Miami [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] everyone [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] same way [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so much [Music] [Applause] [Music]