The Brazilian government acknowledged, as the recently-released...

The Brazilian government acknowledged, as the recently-released Amnesty International report said, that "serious problems still exist" in the country on the human rights front, but it said the administration was fighting hard to end abuses. "We all know serious problems exist, but we are fighting firmly, (and) very strongly to solve them," Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos said. In the annual report the London-based organization had said that despite "good intentions" on behalf of Lula's government, serious threats still persisted in Brazil, including extrajudicial executions and torture by police, overcrowding and poor treatment in prisons and violence against members of indigenous groups.