South America Eyes Legal Reforms Democratic regimes take steps
to update their judicial systems SAO PAULO, BRAZIL SEVENTEEN
years ago, Brazil's federal highways agency published a notice
in a local newspaper announcing that it would expropriate a
piece of land from the family of Margarida Barbosa de Oliveira
to widen a road. The notice included the price the agency would
pay the family. Mrs. Barbosa's husband, a lawyer, didn't think
the price was what the land was really worth, and he went to
court to get full recompense. Even so, the tractors were on
their land only days after the notice appeared.Skip to next
paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Today, Mrs. Barbosa is
a widow. The government long ago agreed to pay a fairer price,
but she has yet to receive the money. The government says it
doesn't have the funds and has taken years, on several
occasions, to calculate what it owes, adjusted for Brazil's high
inflation. "I'll probably die without seeing the end of the
story," Barbosa, age 76, says angrily.