MST leader criticizes government and signals new land invasions

One of the leaders of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and historical supporter of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), João Paulo Rodrigues states that new invasions are not ruled out, but that it is not due to the lack of effective government policies to agrarian reform. And yes, it is something from the “real life” of the movement.

The message to the government was given due to the “mistake” in advancing the MST’s agenda of demands, which asks for more resources for new settlements, appointments to the boards of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) and the purchase of food from farmers that they already produce.

“The mobilizations that happen will not be due to this government oversight. These are real-life mobilizations, which society undertakes to obtain its economic achievements, to improve the lives of the people. But we are worried, yes, about the pace of the government. We are in October and we cannot end the year with a very low balance for the base of movements in the field”, said Rodrigues in an interview with Correio Braziliense published this Monday (2).

According to Rodrigues, the government “is committed to agrarian reform”, but guaranteed that the possibility of new invasions is not “retaliation, revenge or pressure”. For him, the Lula government “cannot spend a year being beaten by the machine”, due to the low amount of resources for agrarian reform.

Last week, audios from parliamentarians from the PT base in the Chamber of Deputies revealed dissatisfaction with Lula’s ministers, especially those linked to agrarian policies. “We present [um valor e negaram]. We lowered it to R$200 [milhões] and they are talking about R$40 [milhões]. Guys, this is a crisis”, stated Airton Faleiro (PT-PA) in one of the messages.

João Paulo Rodrigues was still dissatisfied with the result of the CPI, in which deputy rapporteur Ricardo Salles (PL-SP) classified the movement as a “criminal organization” and criminalized the activities. The report was not voted on, but a series of bills were suggested to Congress.

Rodrigues stated that the “CPI is always bad” and that the investigations harmed the MST’s performance and paralyzed the government. The commission lasted four months and ten days.

“I’m not talking about occupations, because that’s minor. But having to respond to a CPI that was born with a ready report, which did not show what it came from and which caused political confusion in Congress. There are those who think that the MST came out bigger, aggrandized. I prefer the same size MST”, he added.