MST CPI: understand the Chamber commission in 5 points – 04/27/2023 – Power

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), read this Wednesday (26) the request for the creation of the CPI that seeks to investigate the performance of the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers).

The initiative takes place in the midst of the movement’s actions in recent weeks and the growing pressure from the ruralist caucus for the installation of the commission. Parliamentarians present in the plenary of the Chamber applauded after the reading of Lira.

This CPI tends to be more of a headache for the Lula government (PT), by reaching a strategic ally and also by forcing it to mobilize part of a still reduced and unformed base in Congress.

Below are questions and answers about the CPI.

1) Who came up with the idea of ​​the CPI, how will it be composed and what is its purpose? The CPI was based on a request by Deputy Lieutenant Colonel Zucco (Republicanos-RS), with the support of members of the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA), better known as the ruralist caucus.

The CPI will have 27 full members and 27 substitutes. Reading the application means that the commission has been created, but does not imply its immediate installation – this will only happen when the commission’s first session is held. For this, it is necessary to indicate representatives by the party blocks for the composition of the collegiate.

One of those most likely to assume the rapporteurship of the MST’s CPI is former Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles (PL-SP), while the presidency would go to deputy Zucco.

The objective of the CPI is to investigate land invasions by the MST, as well as its objectives and source of funding. In practice, one of the objectives is to point out the link between the movement and the Lula government, since the front that mobilizes for the commission is formed by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

2) What motivated the race for signatures and the creation of the CPI? This April, the MST started what they call the National Day of Struggle for Land and Agrarian Reform with the invasion of farms, including an area that belongs to Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), as well as INCRA headquarters.

The actions provoked reactions not only from agribusiness, but also from the Lula government itself.

The invasions this month mark the anniversary of the Eldorado do Carajás massacre, when, on April 16, 1996, 19 landless workers were killed by troops from the Pará Military Police. The massacre is a national and international symbol of impunity, and the actions of the landless have since come to be known as the Red April.

3) What are the government’s concerns with the CPI? There are basically four concerns:

• The government already knows that it will not have control of the commission. Names from the opposition and agribusiness should be appointed as president and rapporteur of the CPI;

• Wants to prevent deputies from concentrating forces and attention on this and other CPI and leaving in the background votes considered important by the government, such as new fiscal rules and tax reform, in addition to provisional measures in the queue for voting before they expire;

• At least try to protect a historic ally and prevent testimonies and commission documents from being used by the opposition against the government;

• Prevent the wear and tear with the operation of this and other CPIs from hindering the government’s plans to consolidate a solid allied base both in the Chamber and in the Senate, something that still seems distant.

4) What does the MST say about the CPI? João Paulo Rodrigues, from the national coordination of the MST, said on social networks this Wednesday night that the CPI does not have a defined object and is “another stage to distill hatred against our struggle”.

Already in an interview with Sheet he said that the right will use the federal parliament and the Legislative Assemblies across the country to confront the MST. “Along with that, there is their media, fake news and the armed militias of shooting clubs and CACs [Colecionadores, Atiradores Desportivos e Caçadores]. It’s a demonic mix.”

“This CPI is preventive about the future. It is not about the past because there is no fact that justifies it. Our actions are within the framework of democracy. If Congress reaffirms this CPI, it will be a political persecution. We will sue the Supreme Court Federal because it is unconstitutional.”

5) What is the relationship between Lula, PT and MST? The president and the MST have a historic relationship, generally one of alliance, but also full of friction. In the middle of his second term (2007-2010), for example, Lula was called a “traitor”. The relationship later gained weight with the support of the landless to Lula in Lava Jato and in the 2022 elections.

The movement was created on January 20, 1984 and, a year later, at the first congress of the landless, it elected its first national leadership. This first commando of the landless was formed with 18 men and 2 women. They represented the ten states in which the movement was organized (RS, SC, PR, MS, SP, RJ, MG, ES, BA and RO).

The president has a history of promises that he will carry out agrarian reform by force and with a pen. He never did. In his two previous terms, he carried out a simplistic program of haphazardly expropriating land, creating settlements without infrastructure and far from the MST camp bases.

Lula, for example, never fulfilled his promise to update the agricultural indices used to measure the productivity of farms subject to expropriation for agrarian reform.

Furthermore, Lula owes a political debt to the landless. They were the ones who helped to lead the mobilizations in favor of the president at the height of Lava Jato and during the period in which he was imprisoned in the Federal Police of Curitiba. The MST also mobilized its bases for last year’s electoral campaign.