About to complete two years of his mandate as Minister of Agrarian Development and on the eve of an expected ministerial reform in the government, Paulo Teixeira (PT) faces the (Landless Rural Workers Movement).
The “uncomfortable friendship” that the PT member predicted in his inauguration speech in January 2023 turned into an open attack last week.
The main leader of the movement, João Pedro Stedile, told the portal that Teixeira and .
Interviewed by SheetTeixeira minimizes the criticism, saying that the MST’s role is to put pressure on public authorities and that there is a convergence of interests between the ministry and the movement.
“Regarding the criticism, all deliveries were only possible because we have a competent team at MDA and Incra”, he states, alluding to the epithet used by the landless leader.
Behind the scenes, the MST asks for the minister’s head, and the pressure comes on. It is already taken for granted that the president, Paulo Pimenta (PT), is in the first echelon.
Teixeira promises a package of actions for January. Among them, the acquisition of R$700 million in land for , the equivalent of R$1.4 billion in the adjudication of properties belonging to Union debtors and another R$1 billion in land that belongs to public banks and will be transferred to the Incra.
A debt negotiation program for rural producers, Desenrola Rural, and R$1 billion in credit lines for settlers and quilombolas are also planned.
The official announcement was being coordinated with the MST and would take place in December, in a settlement in southern Bahia, according to the minister. But, two weeks ago, thwarted these plans, and now the expectation is that the event will take place along the same lines in January.
Teixeira denies that the package was precipitated by criticism from the landless. “This announcement came from the feasibility of the policies, which were built throughout 2024”, he states. “We would not be able to formulate and resolve all of this in such a short time.”
Nor could they have come out faster, since the feasibility of the measures depended on other bodies and Congress, according to the minister. “It didn’t depend on me. It depended on the government. On the entire public sector. Such was our focus and concentration that all these variables came out in December.”
Teixeira attributes part of the relative slowness to “rules impeding agrarian reform” implemented after the extinction of the MDA by the Michel Temer government. It was up to the new management, according to him, to remove the rubble and then move on to practical work.
This is also a time of pressure from the ruralist bench. On the 11th, the Constitution and Justice Committee of the Chamber of Deputies increased penalties for those who invade rural property.
The initiative, which still needs to be voted on in the plenary, is part of the so-called anti-MST package, which also includes the characterization of land invasions as terrorism and the prohibition of holding public office by anyone considered an invader – two proposals that have already reached the Senate.
On another front, in protest against the Lula government’s agrarian reform policy, in early December and April of next year.
In April 2023, the MST, in addition to Embrapa land in Petrolina (PE). The action triggered a crisis with the government and energized the ruralist group.
When asked, Teixeira did not answer how he would react if the MST invades new lands in 2025, but said that the announced measures take into account the movement’s demands. “All their demands are covered in our very short-term deliveries”, he says. Until the end of the government, the MDA promises to settle 60 thousand families.
