The Minister of Agricultural Development (MDA), Paulo Teixeira, said on Saturday that the government is preparing a contingency plan to return land settlements starting this month. “There will be new settlements in areas that INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) already owns,” he said, in São Paulo, during the National Agrarian Reform Fair, organized by the Landless Movement (MST). According to Teixeira, credit will be provided for the installation of these settlements, as well as technical assistance for the start of production at the sites.
Pressured by the movement – which in the third term of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva resumed the invasions of properties, including productive ones and an area of the Embrapa -, the federal government is trying to respond to the requests of the landless and to the criticisms of the slowness of the land reform process. The MST actions generated strong reactions from agribusiness-related entities.
Last month, Brazil’s Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) filed an application with the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for an injunction to prevent property invasions across the country. Sectors in the segment consider Lula’s administration colluding with the acts of the MST.
The National Fair of Agrarian Reform exposes the close relationship between the Lula government and the movement. The ministers and Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin – who was present yesterday – became the protagonists of the event at the Parque da Água Branca, in the western region of São Paulo.
Since the beginning of this year, in addition to stepping up land invasions and pressuring the government to release more resources for land reform, the MST has organized actions to nominate allies in INCRA superintendents. The movement also ensured its presence in the so-called Council of Lula.
Finance Minister Fernando Haddad has become the poster child for a brand of cornmeal. “I am proud to have participated in the advertising campaign of these products,” said he, who did not attend the event, but praised the garments made by the landless on a social network. The day before yesterday, Lula’s candidate to take over the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Council, Executive Secretary, Gabriel Galípolo, had already visited the event.
‘I RIP THE BRIDGE’
The presence of Alckmin and Lula’s ministers at the MST fair disturbed members of the rural caucus in Congress, increasing the group’s dissatisfaction with the PT government. Palazzo Planalto tries to fix the dialogue, but the story has irritated the parliamentarians linked to the agri-food sector.
“It is the photograph we needed to be able to demonstrate the government’s involvement with the MST in these land invasions,” said MP Evair de Melo (PP-ES), second vice-president of the Parliamentary Agricultural Front of the Chamber, commenting on the trip of the Vice President at the fair. “The government has pulled out the bridge with the agro and there is no more dialogue,” he said.
Questioned yesterday about the CPI of the MST, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said that the work of the Legislature is not “police”. “I am very cautious with this story of the CPI. The job of the legislator is to legislate (to draft laws), not to police. There are already many inspection bodies.”
Opposition members, including MPs from the ruralist group, promise to stress to the committee the government’s responsibility for the MST’s illegal acts.
Alckmin will attend a lunch for the rural group in Brasilia on Tuesday. “The government is giving contradictory signals and has experienced a certain schizophrenia with agro,” said MP Arnaldo Jardim (Cidadania-SP), vice president of the Agricultural Front.
The information comes from the newspaper The State of São Paulo.
Source: Terra
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