Charged by the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) throughout this mandate, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began the election year with the announcement of a package of measures for agrarian reform worth R$2.7 billion. In a sign of rapprochement with the group, historically aligned with PTism and criticized by the agribusiness front in Congress, Planalto announced expropriations in São Paulo, Bahia, Pará, Pernambuco, Sergipe and Maranhão. According to the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira (PT), the new settlements aim to resolve “old and historical conflicts” in the country.
The strengthening of Planalto’s ties with the MST comes after a series of complaints from rural workers. The announcement of investment in agrarian reform took place during the movement’s national meeting, in Salvador, last week, with the presence of Lula.
The list of six expropriated lands, to which GLOBO had access, contains Fazenda Nova Alegria, in Felisburgo (MG). The place was marked by the point-blank murder of five MST workers in 2004 by a group of gunmen. Another 12 people were injured in the action, which also included the burning of 27 houses and the camp’s school. The government also announced the completion of the settlement process at Fazenda Santa Lúcia, in Pau D’arco (PA). At the site, whose expropriation decree was issued last year, a massacre took place that left ten people dead in 2017.
Opportunity with security!
“The new settlements resolve rural conflicts and, thus, promote peace in the countryside. There is no reason for there to be a contrary reaction, because they are settlements created within the law”, argues Teixeira, regarding the possibility of the opposition’s reaction to the amount allocated for the settlements.
Representatives of the agricultural caucus in Congress say they are waiting for the publication of the list of lands to comment.
Unstable relationship
In July last year, the movement released a letter in which it criticized the pace of actions taken by the current PT administration in the countryside. “After almost three years of Lula’s government, agrarian reform remains paralyzed and families camped and settled ask themselves: Lula, where is the agrarian reform?”, says the text.
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Days later, Lula received the movement’s summit at the Palácio do Planalto. The following month, the Executive delivered two land regularization titles in one week, totaling 751. At the time, the Ministry of Agrarian Development stated that the country had resumed the pace of settlements seen in other Lula governments and argued that the PT member’s third term is on track to break historic records in agrarian reform.
On another front of rapprochement with the MST, Lula participated in the closing political ceremony of the 14th National Meeting of the MST last Friday. The PT member defended the engagement of movement members in this year’s elections.
The MST decided that it will launch 18 candidacies for the Legislature this year. There will be 12 names that will compete for state seats, while another six will try to be elected as federal deputies. The list was announced at the beginning of the movement’s national meeting. Currently, the MST occupies three seats in Congress.
The PT member also claimed that, upon returning to Planalto, he had the intention of “making as many settlements as possible”, but he ran into Incra’s lack of structure. According to the president, there is a desire to schedule a meeting with rural groups next month to discuss the government’s deliveries and what still “needs to be done” this year.
Padilha’s former number 2 goes to Gleisi’s place
The current executive secretary of the Conselhão, the Council for Sustainable Economic and Social Development of the Presidency, Olavo Noleto, was chosen by President Lula to replace Minister Gleisi Hoffmann, of Institutional Relations, when she leaves office, in April, to run for the Senate.
Noleto was Alexandre Padilha’s executive secretary when the current Minister of Health was the Secretariat for Institutional Relations (SRI), the department responsible for the government’s political articulation.
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He already worked at SRI during Lula and Dilma’s other terms. Wings of the government and Congress leaders, however, were wary of the chance of someone without a mandate working with deputies and senators.
