About 800 families organized by the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) occupied a large estate in Minas Gerais and land associated with the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys Company (Codevasf) in Bahia, on March 8 and 10. In pronouncements, the peasants criticized the government for not delivering land to the peasants. This is the first land occupation of the MST in 2024, and occurs after a year of 2023 marked by the discrepancy between complete paralysis in the purchase of land for land reform and large investments in the government's landlord.
The land occupied in Minas Gerais is located in Lagoa Santa, metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. The 500 families who occupied the landowner state that the farm was abandoned by the owners and was unproductive.
According to a state leadership, the occupation was a response to the slowness of the government to meet the peasants' demands and occurred as "the most legitimate alternative to fight for the right to land."
Em 2023, The government did not buy any land for land reform despite the government's promises to set up a “land shelf”. The central justification for the lack of land delivery was the “lack of budget”, but many peasants question the explanation against the destination of values that exceed R $ 300 billion to agribusiness through low interest credits.
A request for repossession was fired in court, but denied by the judicial body. The governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema (Novo), criticized the suspension of the repossession and directed the Military Police to act in support of the alleged landowners. A clear defense of state landowners against the peasants in struggle.
About the request, the MST stated that "they could not demonstrate that they have land possession and failed to prove the productivity of the farm, which has been abandoned for almost a decade."
In Bahia, the peasants made similar requirements. There, there were about 300 families who occupied an area of Codevasf on March 10th. The peasants denounced both the lack of land and the lack of water in the region, and blamed Codevasf for the situation of precariousness.
Codevasf said the available water is offered to farmers regularly registered in the venture.
Agrarian Reform will continue to be buried
Throughout 2023, Luiz Inácio's team insisted on the impossibility of carrying out land reform with the low value left by Bolsonaro's budget. However, there was no significant difference in the budget for the Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform from 2023 to 2024: while in the budget left by Bolsonaro the total figure of the institute was R $ 2.85 billion, the one set up by Luiz Inácio dedicated R $ 2.89 billion to the agency. According to calculations by groups such as the National Confederation of Agriculture Workers (Contag), the increase of $ 400 million is far from enough. For Contag, an effective land reform policy would require at least $ 7 billion.
With such miserable elevations, it is expected that the results for 2024 do not differ much from 2023. Last year had the smallest number of settlers in all petist governments. In contrast, peasants rose in different corners of the country throughout the year in occupations to conquer the land by their own hands. It was so in important struggles like that of Mother Bernadete camp , no Southern by Occupation of the lands of the Jaíba Project , in Minas Gerais, both supported by the Poor Peasants League (LCP) and immediately transformed into productive camps, with divided and distributed land among the peasants, and in different occupations carried out by the National Fight - Campo and City Front (FNL) Red Carnival. The MST itself also occupied different land, especially to press the government.
On the other hand, landowners may expect maintenance of large investments in the sector. In February this year, the government announced the investment of another R $ 6 billion in “BNDES Rural Credit” . The program was created last year as a way to foster “agribusiness” through dollar loans and therefore with reduced interest rates. Precisely because of focus on the loan in the US currency, the measure focuses on the export sector, and directly benefits the ownership producing commodities .
This article was updated at 6:31 pm on March 11, with the addition of Romeu Zema's positions.