Justice orders MST to vacate invaded land in Bahia – 03/02/2023 – Power

The Justice of Bahia ordered, on Tuesday (28), members of the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) to vacate invaded land in Mucuri, a city 903 km from Salvador.

The determination of the repossession meets a request from the company Suzano. The invasion took place at dawn on Monday (27), the day before the court decision. In all, around 1,700 landless families participated in the action.

Three other lands were also invaded: a place called Fazenda Limoeiro, in the municipality of Jacobina (north of the state), and other properties used for the cultivation of eucalyptus also belonging to Suzano, located in the municipalities of Teixeira de Freitas and Caravelas, in the south of Bahia.

In the decision, judge Renan Souza Moreira, of first instance, authorizes the use of police force to evict, if necessary.

The determination includes Suzano’s request for the farm intended for the cultivation of eucalyptus in Mucuri. The city is close to the border with Espírito Santo.

“Allowing the extension of the occupation, with the defendant’s clear interest in expanding and seeking to consolidate its possession arising from possessory dispossession, would most likely result in the disorganized and conglomerate formation of irregular occupations, whose experience reveals a harmful result for urban organization /rural, with serious impacts on public health, education, safety and environmental protection policies”, wrote the judge in the decision.

The magistrate also set a fine of R$5,000 per person and per day of invasion if MST members do not comply with the decision, as well as citing the possibility of characterizing a crime of disobedience in this scenario.

When contacted, the MST press office said that the movement, when notified, would comply with the decision. A publication on the site of the landless states that the Limoeiro Farm would have been abandoned for 15 years.

“With the occupations, the landless families claim the immediate expropriation of the large estates for the purposes of agrarian reform, bearing in mind that these properties are currently not fulfilling their social function”, says an excerpt.

The MST also says that “the occupation of Suzano is a denunciation of the monoculture production model” and that “eucalyptus in the extreme south [da Bahia] it is part of environmental and social degradation”. The movement also says that Suzano concentrates large areas of monoculture areas and that the wealth generated does not return to the region.

This Thursday (2nd), the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, said he had been contacted by Suzano’s management, who asked him to mediate in the conflict.

“I’m going to call the MST, suggesting that they can negotiate the issues related to this land; and therefore, starting today, we’re going to raise the whole situation of the conflict. There’s been a conflict there for ten years, it seems that there was a negotiation between them and this occupation has as its objective not the occupied area, but the resumption of the negotiation that had been carried out”, declared the minister.

He stated that he will try to resolve “through dialogue” and reestablish a negotiation that, according to the movement, was interrupted ten years ago.

In a note, company Suzano, in the paper and cellulose business, said that so far only the request for repossession in Mucuri has been analyzed by the Judiciary. The company stressed that “it expects to receive the same determination of repossession in the coming days”.

Suzano said that it complies with the environmental and labor legislation applicable to the areas in which it operates and that it generates approximately 7,000 direct jobs in southern Bahia.

The report has not yet been able to contact the owner of Fazenda Limoeiro.

^{collaborated Marianna Holland, from Brasilia}