Farmers, businessmen and police will dominate the MST’s CPI.

The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) will be dominated by deputies who made a career in the police and the army, were entrepreneurs or are linked to agribusiness. Furthermore, at least 28 of the 54 deputies expected to form part of the CPI are members of the Frente Parlamentar da Agropecuária (FPA), the Agro caucus.

The commission met for the first time last Wednesday afternoon (17) for the installation and election of the members who will lead the works. In a quick vote with a single ticket, chosen by consensus, the president Lieutenant-Colonel Zucco (Republicanos-RS), the 1st vice-president Kim Kataguiri (União-SP), the 2nd delegated vice-president Fabio Costa (PP -AL), and the vice-leader of the opposition, Evair Vieira de Mello (PP-ES), as 3rd vice-president.

Vieira is an administrator by training, but was municipal secretary of agriculture and director president of the Capixaba Institute for Research, Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Incaper).

In his inaugural speech, Deputy Zucco pledged to conduct work with responsibility and transparency. “We are going to seriously investigate the land invasions that once again terrorized the countryside”, highlighted the deputy from Rio Grande do Sul.

Other already defined agro members are deputy Ana Paula Leão (PP-MG), an agriculturalist who is also 1st vice-president of the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock, Supply and Rural Development (CAPADR) of the Chamber and deputy Rodolfo Nogueira (PL- MS) who is also a farmer and rancher.

Deputy Domingos Sávio (PL-MG) is a veterinarian and declared to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) that he has a farm and 157 heads of cattle. Deputy Magda Mofatto (PL-GO) is a businesswoman in the tourism sector and works in defense of agribusiness, in addition to having declared a farm in her name to the TSE.

FPA influenced parliamentarians to seek nominations for the MST CPI

More than half of the members of the MST’s CPI are members of the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA). The president of the FPA, Pedro Lupion (PP-PR), stated, before the installation of the CPI, that he would influence the members of the front to seek nominations, together with their party leaders.

Lupion’s influence led to 28 of the 54 members of the CPI being linked to the FPA. This is the case, for example, of deputy Evair Vieira de Mello.

Other members of the FPA board also won nominations for the MST’s CPI. Deputy Caroline De Toni (PL-SC) acts as the FPA’s legal coordinator. Deputies Hercílio Diniz (MDB-MG), Marcos Pollon (PL-MS) and Lucas Redecker (PSDB-RS) are at the head of the labor, field safety and innovation committees, respectively.

Colonels and delegates are part of a commission that will investigate invasions in the countryside

Among the members of the commission, four have “colonel” as part of their parliamentary name, including the president of the CPI, deputy Lieutenant-Colonel Zucco (Republicanos-RS), who is a former military man. Or others are Coronel Josenildo Assis (UNIÃO-MT and former PM), Colonel Chrisóstomo (PL-RO and former military) and Coronel Ulysses (União-AC and former PM).

Another three were delegates of the Civil Police. They are Fábio Costa (PP-AL) (who is the 2nd vice-president of the CPI), Éder Mauro (PL-PA) and Katarina Santana (PSD-SE).

There is also Deputy Captain Alden (PL-BA), who is a former military police officer, and Deputy Nicoletti (União-RR), who, despite not mentioning his parliamentary name, was a career military officer in the Army and a federal road police officer.

PSOL deputy tried to stop the CPI rapporteur

During the commission’s first meeting, the president, Deputy Zucco, appointed Deputy Ricardo Salles (PL-SP) as the CPI’s rapporteur. Soon after, federal deputy Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL-SP) formulated a point of order to try to prevent the designation.

Deputy Sâmia argued that Salles would be interested in the subject of the CPI. She cited surveys in which the rapporteur was being investigated and also mentioned that Salles had campaign financiers linked to agribusiness with an interest in the work of the CPI.

President Zucco, however, rejected the arguments, stating that it was a “subjective” and “intimate matter”.

At the end of the meeting, Deputy Salles commented on the fact, in a press conference, and stated that “there is no impediment” to assuming the role of rapporteur of the CPI. “I am not a rural producer, I have no relationship with any type of property invasion activity. Unlike congresswoman Sâmia, who employs the wife of Zé Rainha in her office, who is imprisoned in São Paulo for extortion, the crime of invasion and depredation of public and private property. […] If there is anyone who has a conflict of interest in the matter of invasion of property, it is her”, countered Salles.

PT used a strategy to try to delay the start of work

More than half of the CPI’s members were officially appointed between late Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday afternoon, therefore, before the CPI was installed. The Workers’ Party (PT), however, nominated its parliamentarians for the commission only with the meeting already in progress. The strategy is used to try to delay the start of work.

Parties such as the MDB, PSB and Podemos have not yet indicated all the names to compose the CPI. Until the closure of this matter, there were still three vacancies for starters and eight for substitutes.

The MDB, for example, has the right to nominate four members for the CPI, but so far, only Deputy Hercílio Coelho Diniz (MDB-MG) has been appointed as holder. Before entering politics he was an entrepreneur in the supermarket business.

Federal Deputy Rafael Pezenti (MDB-SC) is one of the party’s parliamentarians who asked to participate in the CPI, however his nomination has not yet been filed. The deputy from Santa Catarina recently said, in a video released on his social networks, that “land invaders will be met with a bullet” in his state.

Deputies from the ruling base support the MST

Governing base parties, such as the PT and the PSOL, indicated names that will act in defense of the MST during the CPI. In a recent interview, PT president, deputy Gleisi Hoffmann (PR) highlighted, in an interview published by the newspaper Newspaper, which aligned strategies with PT and government leaders in the Chamber, deputies Zeca Dirceu (PT-PR) and José Guimarães (PT-CE), respectively. “We are committed to protecting the MST,” said congresswoman Gleisi.

To compose the CPI, the PT indicated the names of deputies Camila Jara (MS), Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), Marcon (RS), João Daniel (SE), Nilto Tatto (SP), Padre João (MG), Paulão dos Santos (AL) and Valmir Assunção (BA).

Deputies Valmir Assunção, Marcon and João Daniel expose their connection with the movement on social media, presenting themselves as MST militants or settlers. Nilto Tatto uses a photo in his profile with the cap and the MST flag in the background. Deputies Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the party, and Camila Jara also have publications defending the Movement and criticizing the actions of deputies they classify as ruralists.

For the PT bench, the CPI will be an opportunity for Brazil to get to know the MST. In publications on social networks, the party emphasized that “the PT team is united in defense of the MST”.

PSOL also indicated names to defend the MST. Deputy Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL-SP) will be the incumbent and Deputy Talíria Petrone (PSOL-RJ) will be the alternate. Both delivered speeches against the criminalization of social movements.

Bolsonaro asks for seriousness, without “sealings” at the MST CPI

Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said, in a conversation with journalists, this Thursday afternoon (18), that he has been talking to his party’s deputies about the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the Movement of Unemployed Rural Workers Earth (MST). “What I have been saying to the parliamentarians is to do a serious job. So that no one gets there to seal it, to want to show up, do your inquisition and leave. It is to stay there to look for alternatives”, said the current president of honor of the PL.

Bolsonaro also said that it is possible that the investigations reach those who finance land invasions in Brazil. “To put an end to this. Nobody wants confusion, nobody wants problems in Brazil”, highlighted the former president.

The PL has 11 deputies in the MST CPI. One of the deputies, Bolsonaro’s former Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles (PL-SP) is the rapporteur for the CPI.

MST seeks to delegitimize CPI president and rapporteur

In a note published on its official website after the installation of the CPI, the MST defended the thesis that “the Commission is installed without a specific purpose and represents an attempt to criminalize the MST and put pressure on the government”.

For the MST, the CPI command wants to criminalize the movement. “Ricardo Salles, rapporteur, and Lieutenant-Colonel Zucco, president, do not have the legitimacy to conduct any type of investigation against a Movement that is heading towards its 40 years, raising the historic banner of combating the concentration of land in Brazil”, highlights the note signed by the national leadership of the MST.