Leaders of the (landless rural workers movement) state that the Minister of Agrarian Development, has shown over two years and almost six months of government that is not up to the challenges of office and ask for their resignation by (PT).
They intend to increase the pressure on the government by replacing Teixeira. The president and the minister will meet on Thursday (29) with members of the MST in settlement in Paraná, where they should hear charges.
Teixeira said to Sheet Which is surprised by the observations of MST leaders, who has met regularly with group representatives and that all goals in their folder are up to date.
The landless and the government have been increasingly tense since the early 2023. In the first year of Lula’s term of office, given the finding that the government () had disrupted actions aimed at, the MST had a more tolerant attitude towards the management it had helped to elect.
However, misunderstandings gained strength from 2024, with charges for more settlements and increased Family Farming Food Acquisition Program (PAA). The minister pointed to budgetary difficulties inherited from the pocket period.
Jaime Amorim, a member of the MST National Directorate and historical militant, states that the landless no longer see the purpose of dialogue with Teixeira after followed charges without effective results, in their view.
Last week, Amorim himself decided not to meet the minister in Petrolina (PE), not to legitimize the appearance of normality in relations with the field movements that the minister tries to convey. He states that the attitude must become a trend in the next period.
Amorim defines the minister, deputy licensed by the PT, as one of the “best parliamentarians in the country”, but who, in his assessment, “does not understand agrarian reform and has no interest in carrying it out.”
One of the main disagreements of the MST with the minister is related to the number of settlements and the pace of land reform. The landless criticize the inclusion of families in processes of regularization or recognition of possession in the statistics of settlement creation and say that only the camps who have gained new lands should be counted.
“They are falsifying numbers, creating a logic that anyone who knows a little of our area knows that it does not match reality,” says Amorim. “I was in meetings with Lula, and he [Teixeira] It always speaks the same thing (…) it seems that the main quality of his team is to create numbers that are not real, “he adds.
By the end of 2024, the ministry announced that 71,414 families had been settled that year. The MST contested the data, including in a meeting with the president. The criticism was incorporated by the folder, which began to disclose the data from new settlements separately.
Still, the landless criticize the numbers disclosed and claim that part of these new settlements have not had their entirely completed regularization processes-which means that their residents, for example, cannot adhere to credit programs.
Teixeira is also criticized by landless so they see as difficulties in fighting for more resources in the budget for agrarian reform.
“The minister is not a partner because he does not budget the real need of the process,” says Amorim. “There is a lack of resources in the government for land reform. And the minister always tries to disqualify, even in front of the president. Saying that it has no problem of funds, that it has no problem problem. And, in fact, land reform remains practically paralyzed (…) already gave. In this discussion of agrarian reform he could not effectively put himself and reach [as metas]”He says.
Teixeira says he works hard to meet the goals, that he says they are up to date, and that he maintains constant dialogue with the landless. He points out that he even absorbed the MST criticism of agrarian reform data and that today it can say that the pace of new settlements follows as promised by the government.
“When we launched the Terra da Gente program, we commit to 60,000 families [assentadas]. This year, the goal is 30,000 new settlements. We delivered 15 thousand, we are in the fifth month, going to the sixth. Half of the goal, in the middle of the year, “says the minister, who also sent to the report a newspaper launched by the ministry that lists all new settlements, divided by name, address, size and municipality.
The minister also points out that in March announced $ 1.6 billion in installation credit (directed to settlers of the agrarian reform) and in April released a notice of $ 1 billion for PAA. He also points to the resumption of Pronera, the National Program for Education in Agrarian Reform, which was a demand from the MST itself, with 15 classes in 2023 and 22 more in 2024.
