MST invades Incra and demands the resignation of Lira’s cousin – 04/10/2023 – Politics

A group of around 1,500 landless workers invaded the headquarters of Incra (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform), in the center of Maceió, Alagoas, this Monday morning (10).

Protesters demand the dismissal of the agency’s local superintendent, César Lira. He is the cousin of the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP).

César Lira was appointed in 2017, still under the Michel Temer (MDB) management, on the recommendation of federal deputy Marx Beltrão (PP-AL). He remained in office during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, sponsored by Arthur Lira, and remains in office at the beginning of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government.

Altogether, seven entities fighting for land participated in the occupation, including the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers and Workers), the National Fight Front and the Pastoral Land Commission.

In a statement, the Ministry of Agrarian Development reported that all appointments to Incra’s regional superintendencies and state offices of the ministry are being processed by the Chief of Staff and the Secretariat for Institutional Relations.

“The MDA and Incra have been working for the resumption of the agrarian reform program in Brazil, paralyzed in recent years, and it is open to dialogue with the whole of society. In this sense, the ministry will meet with leaders of social movements in the countryside of Alagoas to receive the list of claims.”

The organizations leading the occupation stated in a note that, since January, they have been calling for the dismissal of César Lira, classified by the landless as a ‘rooted Bolsonarist’. Letters were sent to federal deputy Paulão (PT-AL) and to the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira.

“The continuity of a Bolsonarist administration is unacceptable. Why does the Lula government maintain for so long (more than a hundred days in government) a superintendent who is an enemy of agrarian reform and with a history of violence with leaders and communities?” .

Protesters support the nomination of public servant José Ubiratan Resende Santana as the new Incra superintendent in Alagoas.

In January, the Ministry of Agrarian Development indicated that it would exonerate regional superintendents from the body appointed by Bolsonaro, in response to a demand presented by popular movements in the countryside, which demanded energetic action from the ministry in relation to the leaders.

Bolsonaro’s ally in the 2022 election, Lira was re-elected president of the Chamber of Deputies in February without opposition from the PT, which allowed the deputy to break the record for votes in his reappointment, with the support of 464 of the 513 deputies.

In addition to sponsoring César Lira at Incra in Alagoas, the mayor also has another cousin, Joãozinho Pereira, in charge of the local superintendence of Codevasf (Company for the Development of the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys).

As pointed out by Sheet, the Lula government considers maintaining, with the approval of the president of the Chamber, the engineer Marcelo Moreira in the national command of Codevasf. The state-owned company changed its vocation in the Bolsonaro administration and began to dispose of funds from parliamentary amendments in road paving works and in the purchase of machinery, such as tractors.