Indigenous of three different ethnicities, quilombolas and riverside peasants came together in a protest on February 4 in front of the port of Cargill, a monopoly on the grain export branch in Santarém (PA). Indigenous gifts from the peoples Munduruku, Kayapó and Panará were present. Protesters demanded the end of the pro-latifundio and pro-imperialism venture and denounced the effects that the railroad will have on peasants and indigenous people living in the region.
Tracks and consignments were erected by protesters during a protest. “Trail that will have indigenous blood: they will negotiate our lives,” said one of the ranges raised. According to Edilberto Francisco, present in the protest and interviewed by AND , about 60 people participated in the demonstration.
Government enters, Government leaves, Ferragrão continues
Fergrão is a railway project presented ten years ago by imperialist agribusiness companies, such as ADM, Amaggi, Bunge, Dreyfus and Cargill, target of recent protests. The idea is to cross the Brazilian territory of Mato Grosso, from the city of Sinop, to Pará, in the city of Itaiuba. There will be 933 km of rails, where will pass the grain charges planted in the estates bound for the foreign market, such as China, Europe and the Middle East.
The biggest beneficiaries will be, thus, the Brazilian Latifundium, the late sector of the country responsible for keeping the economy late, stagnant and submissive to the wishes of the dominant imperialist proceedings. The railway promises to significantly cheaper the costs of freight in Brazilian lands. Along with the exemptions given by the state that almost completely cancel export rates, the large farmers will have a new brutal profit increase.
Formulated in 2014, the project was initially closed by Dilma Rousseff (PT). Then it was fed by Michel Temer (MDB), Bolsonaro and finally returned to the hands of the PT in the third government of Luiz Inacio. In it, it was integrated into the acceleration and growth project as a way to ensure the construction of the railroad.
“Why is the government interested in meeting the interests of agribusiness?” Asks Edilberto. “Because our government is a submissive coalition government, arrested, to the interests of agribusiness henchmen and agricultural export companies,” he explains, before adding that: “In the National Congress, the government is playing that game of ' Loses two to win a ',' loses three to win two ', and in that the damage will all come to us. ”
Ferragrão will cross Tis and increase conflicts on the earth
To culminate its construction, the Fergrão will have to cross more than 40 TIS. Six of them are in PA and concentrate 2,600 people. Three isolated indigenous peoples also live on the area route, according to inhamazon and chaff surveys and wheat. In addition, there are several villages of riverside peasants living by the Tapajós river and will be affected by the construction and the developments arising from it.
The project also promises to increase conflict on the land as it will increase the land dispute by the landlord in the Amazon. With the cheapest shipping, more landowners will seek to implement the estates for grain planting in the region. In addition, since MT's shipping to PA will also be cheaper, landowners who sought to migrate MT soy and corn plantations to the Amazon will not necessarily do so, in which case it can prioritize cattle breeding in the Amazon region.
Anyway, Ferroogrão promises to increase the land dispute of landowners in the region that is already the largest stage of conflicts by land in Brazil. In 2022, four of the five states with the highest conflict rates on the Earth were in the Legal Amazon. There are thousands of abroad families living in the region and face, day after day, the landowners and their armed bands in the struggle for the conquest of land to live and work.
In the “Arc of Deforestation of the Amazon”, one of the routes that Ferragrão will pass, there are at least 102 agrarian reform settlements, in addition to 16 indigenous lands. Certainly, they will all be affected by the project, both in the most direct aspects of the enterprise itself, and by the land conflicts derived from the railroad and its changes in the region.
Even so, the government continues with the planning. To top it off, none of the peasants or indigenous people who live there were even consulted by the government about the project.