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REPORTS: BRAZIL |
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Peasant
Farmers Step Up Efforts to Obtain Land
Mario
Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, (Tierramérica) - Land
occupations, marches and raids by Brazilian
landless peasant farmers and threats of
reprisals from large landholders and mayors
in the affected areas have deepened the
social tension in several of the country's
states and placed the land question at the
top of the government's agenda.
Leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, historically a defender of land
reform, met last Wednesday with top
officials of the Landless Rural Workers'
Movement (MST) in a bid to defuse the
tension and stave off potentially dangerous
conflict.
The situation had threatened to get out of
hand. For instance, in the southern city of
Sao Gabriel in the state of Rio Grande do
Sul, a pamphlet was circulated calling on
owners of cropdusters to spray ”the camps
where the landless workers live, with 100
litres of gasoline,” so that one lighted
candle could once and for all put an end to
the clamour for agrarian reform.
The pamphlet was circulated in the city of
60,000 people in reaction to a demonstration
by 800 MST activists who marched 300 km to
the city, to demand the expropriation of a
13,200-hectare farm and its distribution to
530 families in the area.
Landowners launched their own
”counter-march” of 3,000 people on
horseback, trucks and tractors. But by
directing the MST protesters into a detour,
local authorities averted a potential clash
between the two groups.
The MST estimates that some 120,000 families
across the country are living in makeshift
camps waiting for land.
A 19-point document that the movement
presented to Lula last week contains demands
for the settlement of all 120,000 families
this year and the provision of land for one
million families by the year 2006. Of
Brazil's 172 million people, some 4.5
million are landless peasant farmers.
Lula promised to promote ”widespread and
massive” agrarian reform beginning in this
half of the year, but did not set specific
targets.
For now the government will set aside
available public lands for the rapid
settlement of 60,000 families, says Minister
of Land Development Miguel Rosseto.
In addition it will accelerate
expropriations. Under Brazilian laws, the
government can confiscate land not being put
to productive use, as well as property
dedicated to the cultivation of illegal
drugs, for its agrarian reform program.
The tension in the countryside will weaken
to the degree that ”land reform
advances,” said Gilmar Mauro, one of the
27 national leaders of the MST who met with
Lula.
But the conflict is heating up. Last
Tuesday, peasants who are camping out on
occupied lands in the northeast state of
Pernambuco raided a truck carrying food.
Almost 15,000 families are in these camps, a
majority of whom are ”starving” because
the government has failed to distribute the
basic food items it promised, Jaime Amorim,
one of the MST national coordinators in the
state, told Tierramérica.
In Pontal de Parapanema, an area long
plagued by land disputes in the southwestern
portion of the southern state of Sao Paulo,
the mayor of Sandovalina, Divaldo de
Oliveira, has begun an unusual strike,
closing two schools and the only health
centre on Wednesday.
He threatened to widen the protest one day
each week if the state and national
governments do not provide help to bolster
city services collapsing under the weight of
too many users. Some 1,500 landless peasants
have camped in the city of 4,000
inhabitants, putting heavy pressure on its
ability to provide services for residents.
In neighbouring Presidente Prudente,
population 190,000, Mayor Agripino de Lima
called on the population to resist ”the
invasion” by 3,500 landless peasants who
are threatening to demonstrate in the city's
central plaza, demanding land reform.
”This is being done in violation of the
lawàThe continuation of this process will
undermine governance in the country,” said
eight agribusiness organizations that make
up the Rural Council of Brazil, headed by
the National Farming and Ranching Council.
The Democratic Ruralist Union (UDR), which
is not a part of the Rural Council, has
accused the government of neglect for
failing to crack down on the illegal actions
taken by the MST.
”The large farmer is forced to put his
family at risk to defend his property, since
the institutions don't work,” said Luiz
Antonio Nabhan Garcia, president of the UDR
in Presidente Prudente.
Garcia denied accusations that the UDR was
promoting the creation of armed militias by
the large landholders.
In his opinion, land reform should be
carried out on the ”agricultural
frontier”, such as in the ”virgin
Amazon”, not in already developed
agricultural states such as Sao Paulo and
Rio Grande do Sul, where the government must
”purchase expensive land rather than
expropriate, because all land is already
productive.”
But, says the MST, there are 838
non-productive properties larger than 2,000
hectares in Rio Grande do Sul - enough to
settle more than 100,000 families.
”There are large unproductive estates all
over Brazil,” said Miguel Stedile, MST
coordinator in that state. ”It's a myth
that all of the land has been developed.”
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