MST breaks record for invasions in 2023 and is still coddled by Lula

The invasions by the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) in the ten months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) term are already more numerous than those recorded throughout the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Lula is not only ignoring the fact but he has been looking for ways to please the landless and meet their demands.

Between 2019 and 2022, during the Bolsonaro government, 62 land invasions were recorded in Brazil. During the Lula government, 61 cases were registered between January and July 2023 alone, according to a survey prepared by the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA). The Study did not take into account the second half of this year, but since August the People’s Gazette mapped at least 9 other invasions.

Lula does not reprimand the actions, not even verbally. On the contrary, she tries to find ways to please the members of the movement. The most recent addition is a “Booklet of Responses to the MST”, which, in addition to providing information on public policies, provides intelligence material that could be useful in planning future invasions. It includes lists of areas where there would be evidence of environmental crimes and slave labor (used as an argument for invasions), farms taken over by debt and public areas of the Union.

The “Booklet of Responses to the MST” was distributed to movement leaders in an event held to commemorate World Food Day.

Under the responsibility of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, and in partnership with the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA), the document, which has more than 160 pages. In addition to intelligence data, it gathers the MST’s demands and provides feedback on each of them. The same treatment, however, has not been given to issues that concern those most affected by the MST’s actions: rural producers.

Answer booklet points out the government’s direction in responding to the MST

The MST answer book is divided into 3 axes: access to land; economic and structural development in the areas of Agrarian Reform and integral development and agrarian reform as an axis of humanization and improvement of the quality of life. According to the document itself, the “Response Booklet consists of receiving the movement’s agenda of demands, giving adequate treatment to the proposed demands, distributing it to all related Ministries with a determined return period and, finally, systematizing and delivering it to the movement requester”.

Among the responses, the document lists the situation of each of the MST’s “105 emblematic camp areas”, in 23 states. It also brings the government’s actions that promoted progress in the acquisition and expropriation of areas for agrarian reform, including the listing of public lands of the union; areas under adjudication; environmental crimes; areas with evidence of work similar to slavery. Although these lists are a way for the government to say that it is doing something, they serve as intelligence data for the MST, which may decide to invade listed areas to try to speed up the process.

Most of the demands mentioned in the document are responded to by the government with the issuing of decrees that are favorable to the MST, such as number 11.637/2023. The final report of the MST CPI, which investigated the actions of the landless this year, lists this decree among the measures that contribute to the setback of the agrarian reform program.

According to the MST CPI rapporteur, Ricardo Salles, the decree allows illegal collective titling. “With this measure, the MST, and no longer the settlers, will become the owner of the areas expropriated or purchased by INCRA,” he said.

Another point highlighted by Salles is that the decree establishes priority in agrarian reform programs for landless people who have invaded an area and are camped out. In theory, this encourages more members of the movement to opt for violent actions instead of waiting for agrarian reform.

Lula’s treats did not leave land invaders completely satisfied

Despite the responses offered by the government, the movement demonstrated that it must continue with the demands. In evaluating the document, one of the MST members responsible for the production sector, Diego Moreira, said that they will continue demanding the settlement of 65 thousand families who, according to the movement, are waiting for agrarian reform.

“We consider the Answer Booklet to be a valuable methodology. However, after receiving it, it is necessary to analyze each point in detail. For example, with regard to the land issue, it is necessary to establish a schedule and a work plan to settle the 65 thousand families camping”, said Moreira in an interview for the MST’s official website.

In addition to the document, in three consecutive meetings MST members were received by the ministers of Planning and Budget, Simone Tebet, from the Civil House, Rui Costa, from the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Márcio Macedo, from Agrarian Development and Family Farming, Paulo Teixeira, and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad.

Agribusiness does not receive treatment similar to that of the MST in its agendas

Similar conduct, however, has not been verified in demands that concern Brazilian agribusiness. Unlike the MST, the agribusiness bench has had to deal with a series of setbacks in this government. Especially with regard to the right to property and legal uncertainty, deputies and senators had to resort to obstruction of agendas in Congress to try to stop the attacks against agribusiness.

Even so, they saw the Federal Supreme Court (STF) judge the unconstitutionality of the thesis of the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands at the same time that President Lula vetoed a large part of the bill approved by Congress on the same topic.

Furthermore, recently the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, mentioned the possibility of adjudicating (taking) land from debtors for the creation of rural settlements. The speech was received as a threat to property rights and motivated the opposition’s reaction. One publication by former president Jair Bolsonaro classified the minister’s speech as a “land expropriation” measure.

The agribusiness sector still accumulates a series of promises made by the Lula government that have not been fulfilled. Last week, the president of the Parliamentary Agricultural Front (FPA), deputy Pedro Lupion (PP-PR) criticized the government, in a press conference, due to the Ministry of Finance’s refusal to supplement resources for rural insurance. “Unfortunately, there is not much surprise. Last week we saw a political announcement of this amount and now the denial of this amount. This is yet another of this government’s promises and commitments to our sector that were not fulfilled”, said Lupion.

Through a technical note, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Carlos Fávaro, requested, in the second week of October, the Ministry of Finance, the opening of supplementary credit to the General Budget of the Union (OGU) totaling R$ 500 million for Rural Insurance. The request for supplementation, however, was denied by the Ministry of Finance. “The promise was made when they already knew that they would not pay for rural insurance, an issue that is so dear to us and so necessary, mainly due to the floods in the South and drought in the North”, highlighted the president of the FPA.

Collecting episodes of wear and tear with agribusiness, the Lula government also led a direct clash with the sector by including ideologically biased questions in the exams for the National High School Exam (Enem) 2023. Among the questions in the exams held last Sunday (5) there were attacks on agriculture, directly associating it with deforestation and characterizing it as a villain. This led to revolt by representatives of the sector and requests for the test to be canceled, as well as the removal of the Minister of Education.

MST advances with invasions while government responds to demands

The series of affection for the MST began during the transition of Lula’s government, which included some members of the movement among its members. Once in power, Lula appointed landless people to strategic government positions.

Despite the prompt response to the movement, with the positions and the intense open dialogue with Lula’s ministers, the number of invasions gave no respite.

Under this scenario, in May, the Chamber of Deputies installed the MST Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI). Among the investigations, according to the CPI’s final report, this year, invasions of public or private rural properties were recorded in Bahia (18), in Goiás (3), in Minas Gerais (2), in Mato Grosso do Sul (5), in Pará (3), in Paraná (1), in São Paulo (12), in Tocantins (3), in Pernambuco (13) and in Espírito Santo (1). The CPI report took into account information compiled in a survey prepared by the CNA.

Furthermore, from August onwards, the People’s Gazette mapped at least 9 invasions in the states of Pernambuco, Ceará, Maranhão, Goiás, Bahia, Santa Catarina and Paraná. It is also important to highlight that in cases of invasions such as the one that occurred in Paraná, members of the MST were arrested for illegal possession of weapons and charged with a series of crimes, including the deprivation of freedom of police officers. There was also an MST camp, set up on the banks of a highway in Rio Grande do Sul, which led to the creation of a vigil for rural producers to protect their lands.