Brazil’s newest city becomes a consultancy for separatists – 12/28/2023 – Power

The 132 km road stretch between Sorriso and its “daughter”, Boa Esperança do Norte (MT), gives a dimension of how the new Brazilian city will be born, created after a legal battle lasting more than two decades: surrounded by soybeans on all sides sides, it should become one of the richest agribusiness cities in the state in a few years.

Close to the MT-140 highway, it will incorporate areas in full production of Sorriso and Nova Ubiratã, both agricultural powerhouses that rank first and sixth among the richest municipalities in the segment in the country.

The largest grain producer in Brazil, Sorriso will give up around 20% of the total area of ​​the new city, while Nova Ubiratã, which went to court in 2000 against emancipation, will hold the other 80%.

Vice-mayor of Sorriso, Gerson Bicego (PL) says that the city supported the emancipation proposal due to the potential that Boa Esperança has, because it is already consolidated and also because of the difficulty that the distance from the district to the headquarters causes in maintaining public services .

“Sorriso will have 580 thousand hectares of soybeans, for 110 thousand inhabitants. They [Boa Esperança] they will have almost 300 thousand hectares for 7,000 inhabitants. So you can imagine the potential that a municipality like this will have, the economic strength”, said Bicego.

This area of ​​300 thousand hectares is already consolidated and, in addition to soybeans, the future city produces corn, cotton and beans and has seen the development of livestock farming, in a total area of ​​480 thousand hectares.

“Perhaps, at the time, [a decisão da criação] would have a greater impact on the municipality of Nova Ubiratã, I believe that today it is practically insignificant due to the strength that Nova Ubiratã has, I don’t even need to talk about their power. At the time, the agricultural region developed first in our region here, and Nova Ubiratã had a more timber characteristic”, said Calebe Francio, deputy mayor of Boa Esperança who is at the forefront of the emancipation process.

The estimate of those involved with emancipation is that Nova Ubiratã will lose between R$20 million and R$21 million annually in taxes. A Sheet He contacted the city hall, but there was no response to the request for an interview.

Bicego admits that the neighboring city will feel the effects more than Sorriso. “The fight is there [no tamanho da área a ser cedida].”

Francio said that, since the announcement of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) decision for emancipation, he has received calls from other districts in search of information in attempts to also be transformed into municipalities. But he said it has discouraged those interested.

“It’s a sporadic case, atypical of Brazil […] Today there is no regulation from the federal government. [Quando me procuram] I say ‘calm down, guys, it’s a different reality'”, he said, awaiting a ruling from the STF on the next steps for the installation of Boa Esperança.

In Amazonas alone, there are at least a dozen districts that want to become municipalities, but they struggle with legislation.

The Constitution provided that the creation, incorporation, merger and dismemberment of municipalities should occur through state laws.

This, however, led to the mass emergence of cities, so much so that 1 in every 5 in the country emerged after 1988, and in 1996, an amendment made the creation conditional on the approval of a federal law that would analyze viability.

Congress approved rules to regulate the issue, but they were vetoed by the Executive. The last veto occurred in 2014, during the Dilma Rousseff (PT) administration.

Another amendment, in 2008, validated the acts of creation, merger, incorporation and dismemberment of municipalities whose law had been published by December 31, 2006, as long as the other requirements established in state legislation at the time of creation were met – 63 municipalities were regularized with the measure.

One of the rules is that the new municipality must have, in the case of the North and Central-West of the country, at least 6,000 inhabitants, in the case of Boa Esperança do Norte.

The government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) presented, in 2019, a proposal that could result in the merger of municipalities that did not have financial autonomy with neighboring cities from 2025 onwards.

According to the proposal, cities with less than 5,000 inhabitants and their own collection of less than 10% of total revenue would have to merge the structure with others.

The measure would affect 1,220 cities, according to the CNM (National Confederation of Municipalities). The proposal generated discontent from federal deputies and senators and ended up being abandoned.

‘EMANCIPATE YES, SEPARATE NO’

The campaign for the emancipation of Boa Esperança do Norte is visible on the streets of the future city and in conversations with residents.

Quiet, there is very little movement, marked predominantly by farmers’ trucks around agricultural houses and agricultural machinery dealerships and by the movement of students on foot or on bicycles. There are around a thousand, in state and municipal networks.

There is a large sports square, surrounded by trailers, and a main avenue, which has received Christmas decorations – simpler than those displayed in Sorriso – and which displays paintings with the words “Emancipate yes, separate no”.

The future city presents bottlenecks such as having many dirt streets and the fact that it is only possible to use a cell phone from one operator, TIM.

Electrician Marcos Carvalho Leão, known as Marquinhos, arrived in Boa Esperança exactly 23 years ago, with the expectation of emancipation. Owner of a grocery store, opened six years ago in the current location, he said that the local economy will improve a lot now with emancipation.

“Anyone who wants to work prospers. I managed to buy land, I have a rented shed, a grocery store and three trucks to haul soybeans during the harvest,” he said.

One of his plots of land, measuring almost 600 square meters, is valued at R$250,000, according to him, five times more than the values ​​practiced until around five years ago.

The only gas station in the current district operates from 5:30 am to 9 pm, which requires drivers who need to travel to Sorriso to have a fueling schedule.

“You can’t go out at any time and think you’ll get there [Sorriso] with little gas, especially because the phone doesn’t work properly on the highway. This should change a lot in ten years, that’s what we hope”, said driver Jean Carlos Fraga, while his truck was being filled with fuel.

Francio, who is expected to run for mayor next year, stated that the location is far from being just a district.

“It has a notary’s office, two banks, it’s a city within another city […] We were forced to live these 23 years despite all the difficulties, so we solidified our society, commerce became strong, our agriculture became cutting edge and even the political leaders themselves are now mature, today there is a great sense of unity here”, he said.

The current district, when it effectively becomes a municipality, will have two districts incorporated, Piratininga and Água Limpa, now part of Nova Ubiratã.

Governor Mauro Mendes (União Brasil) was contacted, but declined to comment on the topic. When the STF decided to make Boa Esperança do Norte official, he said he viewed the decision with “reserve”.

Among the changes that should occur is the public security staff. Sorriso ranks as one of the cities with the highest rates of intentional violent deaths in the country, according to the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, and losing part of the police force to the new municipality would be harmful.

Secretary of Security of Mato Grosso, César Augusto Veri said that there will be training courses (Military Police, Civil Police and Fire Department) throughout 2024 and that they will be used in the composition of the new municipality.