Amid the increase in invasions, MST signs names in the Lula government

The Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) invaded this Monday (3) the land of Engenho Cumbe, in Pernambuco, starting the “National Day of Red April”, organized annually by the agrarian movement. Other invasions are expected for the next few days, in addition to several that have already occurred since the beginning of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

In the midst of this context, the MST has expanded its space within the PT government. With strong influence within the movement, former state deputy Edegar Pretto (RS) was approved on March 21 as president of the National Supply Company (Conab).

In addition, the MST recently named Milton José Fornazieri for the Secretariat for Supply, Cooperatives and Food Sovereignty of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA). With that, Fornazieri will coordinate actions within Conab, which has a budget of BRL 1.5 billion expected for 2023.

With the reorganization of the Esplanada dos Ministérios, Lula removed Conab from the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture, which generated criticism from members of the agribusiness group in the National Congress. Privately, parliamentarians from the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA) have already raised questions about the influence of the MST within the state-owned company.

“When we talk about Conab, which is a body that thinks about Brazilian agriculture, that does planning, that sees the size of the harvest, this has to be close to the Ministry of Agriculture”, defended deputy Pedro Lupion (PP-RS).

The demand for space within the PT administration by members of the MST had been going on for at least two months and, according to Planalto advisers, other nominations for Executive positions should come out in the coming weeks. Among them, the national coordinator of the MST, Keli Mafort, who was chosen by the government to head the National Secretariat for Social Dialogues and Articulation of Public Policies of the Presidency of the Republic.

At the same time, last week, the PT nominated federal deputy Valmir Assunção (PT-BA) for the party’s vice-leadership in the Chamber of Deputies. Assunção is in his fourth term and has already participated in the grassroots work of the MST and the occupation of land in the interior of Bahia. As deputy leader of Lula’s party, the PT deputy will be responsible for taking part in the meetings to define the agenda and positions of the acronym within the Chamber of Deputies.

Number of land invasions in 2023 already exceeds the first year of Bolsonaro’s government

The expansion of space for MST members within the PT administration occurs amid the increase in the number of land invasions across the country. In all, there are already 15 occupations registered since Lula’s inauguration, on January 1st. In 2019, the first year of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, there were 11 occupations, according to the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra).

The most recent case occurred this Monday (3rd), when 250 people linked to the MST invaded an area of ​​800 hectares of land belonging to a power plant in the city of Timbaúba, in Pernambuco. In the view of the agrarian movement, land “does not fulfill a social function, which is to produce food for society”. They also claim that the area belongs to the government of Pernambuco and accuse the plant of land grabbing.

Also recently, on March 25, the MST invaded a farm in the city of Hidrolândia, in the interior of Goiás. The property was included in the Union’s heritage in 2019, after Swiss businessman Pietro Chiesa was convicted of organizing, along with nine other people, an international trafficking scheme in women and girls for prostitution.

The scheme, which was discovered by authorities in 2002, used the farm as a route. The property was seized for the Union, along with other assets belonging to Chiesa and other convicts. The case was judged by the Federal Court of Goiás. After the invasion by the MST, the federal government indicated that it intends to include the farm in the agrarian reform programs.

Before that, the group had already carried out several invasions of private properties across the country, including three farms belonging to the Suzano company in the interior of Bahia. Despite this, President Lula remained silent about the episodes.

At the time, MST members attributed the occupations to the government’s delay in appointing the national command of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra). Landless leaders also complained about what they consider a slow replacement in the agency’s state superintendencies.

Such as People’s Gazette As shown, the Lula government appointed the civil servant César Aldrighi to the presidency of Incra, which did not excite the members of the MST. After the negative repercussions due to the invasions, the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Texeira (PT), tried to minimize the damage, indicating that the government will “protect” private properties.

“The Ministry of Agrarian Development will act in accordance with the Constitution, protect private property and demand compliance with the social function of property. Now it is up to me to help overcome this conflict and it is also up to me to establish preventive mechanisms for new conflicts”, said Texeira to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

CPI to investigate MST invasions opens new crisis for Lula in the National Congress

With the omission by the federal government, members of the National Congress submitted a request for the installation of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) to investigate the wave of land invasions across the country. The request was filed with 172 signatures, one more than the minimum necessary, and the decision to install the CPI is now in the hands of the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

“The support of the Agricultural Parliamentary Front [FPA] was fundamental for the proposal to overcome more than a third of the parliamentarians. We need to thoroughly investigate who is financing terror in the countryside,” said Deputy Lieutenant Colonel Zucco (Republicanos-RS), one of the authors of the request.

For Deputy Ricardo Salles (PL-SP) it is necessary to investigate the “modus operandi” of land invasions, because there is “extortion from owners, threats, use of illegal weapons and a series of other crimes that permeate these activities, which try to invest in a social movement”.

Government leaders, however, are already mobilizing behind the scenes to try to bury the request for the installation of the CPI. The government supporters’ assessment is that the commission could expand the opposition’s firepower within the National Congress in this first year of government.