In Brazil, one of the countries with the highest
concentration of land ownership in the world, some 200,000 peasant farmers
still have no plot of their own to farm. Social movements had hoped that
Rousseff, who belongs to the left-wing Workers’ Party like her predecessor Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva, would take up the banner of democratisation of land
ownership. But her government’s economic policies have focused on incentives
for agribusiness and agro-industry, mining and major infrastructure projects.
“There was a fall in the numbers of new rural settlements
and of land titling in indigenous territories and ‘quilombos’ (communities of
the descendants of African slaves), while on the other hand, investment in
agribusiness and agro-industry grew,” said Isolete Wichinieski of the Brazilian
Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), a church-based organization. The conflict over
land has intensified, according to the CPT, with the expansion of livestock-raising
and monoculture farming of soy, sugarcane, maize and cotton, and growing
speculation by large landowners with close ties to politicians.
According to the CPT report, during the first Rousseff
administration (2011-2014), 103,746 families were granted land under the
government’s agrarian reform programme. But that figure is actually misleading,
because in 73 percent of the cases, the land settlement process was already in
progress before the president took office, and the families had already been
counted in previous years. If only the new families settled on plots of their
own during Rousseff’s first administration are counted, the total shrinks to
28,000. The government reported that in 2014 it regularised the situation of
just 6,289 families – a number considered insignificant by the CPT. In order
for land reform to be effective, the CPT argues, more settlements must be
created and the concentration of rural property ownership must be reduced in
this country of 202 million people. But the organisation does not believe
Rousseff is moving in that direction. Agrarian reform was not on the agenda of
the campaign that led to the president’s reelection in October, and the new
government includes names from the powerful rural caucus in Congress, which
represents agribusiness and agro-industry.
The agriculture minister is former senator Kátia Abreu, the
president of the National Confederation of Agriculture. She surprised people
when she stated in an interview that there are no “latifundium” or large landed
estates in Brazil.
“Abreu has backwards, outdated views of agriculture,”
complained Wichinieski. “She denies that there is forced labour in the
countryside, she isn’t worried about preserving the environment, and she argues
in favour of the intensive use of agrochemicals in food production.”
One example is the case of the 20,000-hectare Agropecuaria
Santa Mônica estate, 150 km from the national capital, Brasilia, in the state
of Goiás, part of which has been occupied by families belonging to the MST. The
property belongs to Senator Eunício Oliveira, considered the wealthiest
candidate for governor in Brazil in the last elections. In the Senate, Oliveira
heads the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, Rousseff’s main ally in
Congress. He served as communications minister under Lula in 2004-2005 and last
year lost the elections for governor of the state of Ceará. Valdir Misnerovicz,
one of the leaders of the MST, told IPS that the estate is unproductive and
that its only purpose at this time is land speculation. Strategically located
between the municipalities of Alexânia, Abadiânia and Corumbá, Santa Mônica
represents the largest land occupation by the MST in the last 15 years. It all
started on Aug. 31, when 3,000 families marched on foot and in 1,800 vehicles
to the estate, part of which they occupied. Since then, more than 2,000 men,
women, children and elderly persons have been living in a camp and control 400
hectares of the estate. They are determined to win a portion of the land to
farm. In November, a court ruled that Oliveira has the right to recover the
property.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/rousseffs-brazil-no-country-for-the-landless/
