Government wants Ferrogrão, but waves to indigenous people – 05/26/2023 – Panel SA

In a statement sent to the STF (Federal Supreme Court), the Attorney General’s Office lit a candle for agribusiness and another for environmentalists in the dispute involving Ferrogrão, a 933 km railroad that will transport food from Mato Grosso to Pará.

In the piece, the body asks the Court to partially revoke the injunction that, since 2021, has blocked procedures for granting the work, which would serve agribusiness.

At the same time, he agrees with the indigenous people’s argument that the alteration in the area of ​​the Jamaxin National Park (PA) was unconstitutional. According to the AGU, the change should have been made via a bill and not by a provisional measure, as it happened.

In 2021, Minister Alexandre de Moraes responded to a request from PSOL and granted an injunction suspending the effectiveness of a law that altered the limits of Jamanxin, in Pará, to make room for the work’s layout.

The change was initially proposed by a provisional measure by the Michel Temer government in 2016 and, in 2017, converted into law by congressmen.

For the party, which judged the action in 2020, the procedure was unconstitutional, because, in its view, a bill should have been sent to the Legislative, not an MP.

In addition, the caption argues that the implementation of the railroad in the proposed way could negatively impact indigenous communities in the region.

In his decision, Moraes stopped the processes related to Ferrogão, in particular those in progress at the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT), at the Ministry of Infrastructure and at the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), which, in practice, stopped any studies on the work.

In a session scheduled for next Wednesday (31), the STF will decide whether or not to endorse the minister’s injunction.

In previous governments (Temer and Bolsonaro), the AGU had been positioning itself for the total repeal of the injunction. The body defended the constitutionality of the MP.

From an environmental point of view, he maintained that the work would not cut through any indigenous land and that, by replacing road freight transport with rail, it would substantially reduce the discharge of pollutants into the atmosphere.

This Friday (26), the AGU sent a petition to the Supreme Court agreeing with the unconstitutionality of the law.

It informs that, “due to new technical information provided by federal environmental agencies, it modified its position expressed in previous stages of the process, now manifesting itself for the origin of the request made by PSOL”.

The turnaround came after an appeal by the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guanabara, affiliated with PSOL, who alleged possible negative consequences of changing the boundaries of Jamanxin for the environment and communities in the region.

The AGU of Messias argues that the suppression of part of the park area was implemented in 2017 without any environmental compensation.

The compensation provided for in the MP was withdrawn in the process of converting the original text into law.

This, according to the minister, was not preceded by “previous studies that concluded that this measure was appropriate, from an ecological point of view”.

The AGU clarifies that its opinion is not that the railroad would, by itself, be harmful to the environment. Therefore, it informs the court that it does not oppose the “regular continuation of the procedures” related “to the construction of the railroad”.

In view of this, while agreeing with the unconstitutionality, which serves Guajajara’s interest, the minister asks the Supreme Court to authorize the continuity of “administrative processes related to Ferrogrão, including with regard to the updating of studies, observing all legal conditions, including socio-environmental issues” — which serves the interests of the productive sector.

With Diego Felix

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