Soldados da Borracha

Overview

During the Second World War, a cooperation agreement between the Brazilian and US governments led to the transportation of around 60,000 men from the Northeast of Brazil to the Amazon Region to work on the extraction of latex destined for the American arms industry. Half of these men died before they could return home and many others are still awaiting recognition as "national heroes" and the pensions equal to those of servicemen they had been promised.