The leader of the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA) of the Chamber of Deputies, federal deputy Pedro Lupion (Republicanos-PR), presented an amendment to the Anti-Faction bill (PL) to include in the text individuals or groups that occupy land, which could affect the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and other social movements.
The first article of the amendment presented this Wednesday (12) prohibits public authorities from offering protection or support, or any benefit, to groups, organizations or social movements “involved in the commission of crimes against private or public, rural or urban properties, especially possessions, illegal occupation and property depredation”.
When justifying the measure, the leader of the ruralist group says that the objective is to increase the protection of property, especially rural property.
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“This is a healthy measure to combat crime in rural areas, which is guided by the violation of private property and the lives of rural producers”, he explained.
The amendment prohibits the witness protection program for human rights defenders from being activated for those who participate in land occupation.
“A person or group that uses possessory expropriation or any type of occupation as an instrument of political pressure cannot be recognized as a social movement, or defender of human rights”, says the text. Embezzlement is when an owner loses possession of the property.
The amendment is also signed by the PL leader, Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), and by the Republican leader, Gilberto Abramo (Republicanos-MG).
The PL must be considered this Wednesday in the Chamber Plenary, with rapporteur Guilherme Derrite (PP-SP) being able to accept, or not, the amendment presented by deputy Lupion.
MST
Lawyer Diego Vedovatto, from the MST’s human rights sector, explained that this is yet another attempt to criminalize social movements, associating them with criminal factions.
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“Social movements are legitimate organizations that aim to demand some constitutional right, some public policy, be it agrarian reform, the right to housing or the demarcation of indigenous territories. In no way can they be compared with factions that promote trafficking, violence and land grabbing”, argues the doctoral candidate in law at the University of Brasília (UnB).
Vedovatto assesses that, if approved, this amendment would reach all social movements in the country due to its generic and comprehensive text. He also argues that the MST carries out land occupations as a way of denouncing and drawing the attention of public authorities.
“It is a form of reporting and always peacefully. There is no violence against the person. What often happens is the cutting of a fence, which does not cause damage. Possible depredations. Problems against property or people must be identified and held responsible”, adds Diego Vedovatto.
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The MST bases land occupations with the aim of carrying out agrarian reform based on Article 184 of the Federal Constitution, which states: “it is up to the Union to expropriate for social interest, for the purposes of agrarian reform, rural property that is not fulfilling its social function”.
The movement says it occupies unproductive land so that the State can act to comply with the Constitution.
On the other hand, landowner organizations accuse the movement of crimes against property and seek to approve, in Parliament, projects to inhibit new occupations.
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