NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 491, July 4, 2003


Dear News from Brazil readers,

In our last issue, we asked you to write letters to the Governor of Paraiba
concerning violence in that state (see No. 490 for more details).
Unfortunately, the governors email address is no longer functioning.
However you can go to www.paraiba.pb.gov.br, click "contato" and type a
message directly on the state's website.

News about agrarian reform continues to dominate the press. Below are some
recent articles and events concerning the issue:

Large Landowners in Rio Grande do Sul Threaten to Assassinate Landless
Movement (MST) Workers:

Large land owners (latifundium) in São Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul
distributed an unsigned pamphlet in which they recommend three ways of
assassinating members of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST):
burning, poisoning, and shooting. The document states, "These rats need to
be exterminated. It will be painful, but strong remedies are necessary
for big illnesses. People of São Gabriel, do not permit our city to be
defiled and stained by the deformed and dirty feet of this human scum. It
is necessary that blood pours to show our courage. "

Approximately 800 landless families occupied the property of 13.2 thousand
hectares owned by Alfred Sothhall. The land had been declared
unproductive according to INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and
Agrarian Reform). According to Brazilian law, idle property can be seized
for agrarian reform. The property is valued at $8,000,000 and the process
of expropriation is taking place in the Federal Supreme Court.

Rossano Dotto Gonçalves, the mayor of São Gabriel, requested a thorough
investigation by the police to uncover the authors of the pamphlet and to
verify the truth of the threats. City-council representatives, the
mayor, and the president of the Rural Workers Union of São Gabriel sent an
official letter requesting an investigation to members of the Public
Security and Justice Councils of the city and state.

In the official letter, the mayor also suggests the possibility of the
landless members having invented the threats: "We ask for a rigorous
punishment for those responsible for writing the pamphlets, those who are
threats to public tranquility, and principally, those who, perhaps, say
that they are threatened, trying to get easy publicity in a political game
that is dishonest and demagogical".

History of Terror

The hypothesis that the pamphlet and threats are an invention to secure
publicity does not stand up to an analysis of the history of the local
large land owners in regards to the MST. On the contrary, there have been
frequent episodes when the estate owners used terrorist methods and
intimidation against the MST.

In 1998, land owners sprayed poison on an MST encampment in Rincão do Ivaí,
killing four children. The case was taken to the Human Rights Commission
of the State Legislative Assembly. In 2000, in Hulha Negra, land owners
poisoned the water, putting at risk the lives of hundred of people. At
another encampment close by, also in 2000, estate owners tried to run over
families with their trucks. Recently, the mayor of São Gabriel, opened
ditches close to the Sandhall farm to impede free movement of the landless.
The holes caused problems for the population who need the road and
provoked an accident of a school bus. This week, Sandra Xarão, a
city-council member of São Gabriel, had her life threatened for supporting
agrarian reform.

Source: Brasil de Fato (June 26-July 2, 2003)

Lula Meets with MST Leaders:

In the midst of increasing land struggles and violence, President Lula and
ministers of Agrarian Development and Incra met with 29 MST leaders on
July 2, 2003. Lula repeated promises to settle 60,000 families by the end
of the year with priority given to those living in encampments. The
government also agreed to improve conditions in the encampments and to
develop a map of nonproductive lands to be used for agrarian reform.

The MST provided a list of 16 requests, among them the encampment of
120,000 families at this time and one million families by the year 2006.
Other demands included the expropriation of large farms without a social
function and more infrastructure in the encampments. Denouncements of
slave labor connected with crime were also listed. The MST requests will
be analyzed by work groups that the government is currently creating.

At the beginning of the meeting, Lula put on an MST hat inscribed with the
words "Agrarian Reform - Brazil without latifundium". Lula stated that
"Agrarian reform is a historical commitment of the PT and a personal
commitment of his". He indicated that it must be done in peaceful form
within the law.

Gilmar Mauro, a member of the MST directory, stated that "We have control
over the masses of the MST, but on the farms there are other social
movements". Mauro considers the increase in land occupations a natural
phenomenon: "Among the people there is hope in Lula--an expectation that he
will effectively implement agrarian reform". In summing up the meeting,
João Pedro Stedile, coordinator of the MST, stated that "Agrarian reform
is like soccer. The team of the large landowners versus the landless. The
struggle will continue; however, the government is playing on our side".

(MST website and Folha de São Paulo, July 3, 2003)

Landowner Militias are a Focus of Tension:

Bishop (Dom) Tómas Balduíno, the president of the Pastoral Land Commission,
classified the formation of militias by large landowners as "the seeds of
social upheaval". For Dom Tómas, the increased occupations of land is a
way of "calling attention" to Brazil´s agrarian reform problem. "We should
have social commotion on the part of those who are excluded from society.
Land occupations don´t lead to social convulsion, but rather help to
provide access to those who struggle to survive".

Speaking of the armed militias of the landowners, Dom Tómas stated that
they are sowing the seeds of upheaval. The large landowners do not dirty
their hands but hire mercenaries to execute their orders.

Regarding the eviction of 1,500 landless by the military police on July 3
in Tracunhaém, Pernambuco, Dom Tómas said "This is an area with a legal
decree for expropriation since 1997 yet the justice system suspended the
decree to reintegrate the area four days ago".

(Folha de São Paulo, July 4, 2003)


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