NEWS
FROM BRAZIL
supplied by Brazil Justice Net
Number 577, September 26, 2007
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our home page at: http://www.braziljusticenet.org
In this week's News from Brazil:
Brazil:
Land + Water = Power
by Roberto Malvezzi, Gogó
Intellectuals
linked to the university and men from agribusinesses continually say
that the agrarian question is out of date in Brazil, that the opportune
moment for agrarian reform is lost in history, and that today it no
longer makes sense to carry it out. This theory, many times disproved
by the indices of violence in the countryside, is now illustrated more
by politics than economics, putting in confrontation the National
Confederation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG) and the union
Confederation of Agriculture and Cattle of Brazil
(CNA). While CNA
affirms that agriculturists who have more than two fiscal modules of
land are classified as entrepreneurs and therefore should contribute to
CNA, CONTAG argues that these are outdated indices and that owning up
to four fiscal modules classifies them as family farmers and that they
should therefore contribute to CONTAG. The numbers
seem insignificant
in light of the vastness of Brazilian lands, but the simple inclusion
of two modules more or two modules less can reduce by half the revenue
collections of the CNA. What this fact reveals is
much more than the
dispute for the 80 million reais; what is at play is the importance of
small-scale agriculture, bringing entrepreneurs to dispute CONTAG's
bases even at the judicial level.
It is also common knowledge
that the biggest party in Congress is that of the ruralists, with a
political caucus of two hundred deputies. Although
they are an
insignificant percentage of the Brazilian population, they have
economic power, which translates into political power, and they have
imposed their agenda for renegotiating debts with all of the
governments, including that of Lula. Land, more
than ever, is power.
Today,
adding land and water together, the power becomes almost
absolute.
The symbolic example of this new battlefield in Brazil is the
transposition of the São Francisco River. The
companies that control
the dams that will receive the waters of the São Francisco
are going to
control all of the waters of the northeast. The unified
control of
land and water will constitute a power of life and death over all those
in the northeast. If land is already power, allied
with water, it
will be a power that is practically absolute.
The control of
water must be granted by an authority. For example,
the authority
granted by the National Water Agency to Aracruz Celulose in the state
of Espírito Santo would be sufficient for supplying a city
of 2.5
million inhabitants per day.
The issue doesn't end there.
The cabinet of the presidency of the Republic stated clearly that in
the future there will be an interconnection of the basins of the
Tocantins River and the São Francisco River .
Therefore, it will be
decades of heavy investments in a centralized infrastructure and in the
centralizing of water, land, and power.
Lula and the other
defenders of these politics have become shameless hydro
populists. If
Lula had the same interest in those who are thirsty, he would not be
the number one obstacle in Brazil to water being recognized as a human
right. Once more in history, in the name of the
thirst of the people,
there will be a concentration of land and water in the Northeast, now
under the command of Brazilian and international agri- and
hydro-businesses. Thus, the country of 21st century
riches, with its
mega-diversity, water, sun, and abundant earth, goes on designing its
politics for the delivery of natural goods with an eye towards large
capital.
Without power, betrayed by its allies—although with
more money from the current government than previous
ones—family
agriculture is becoming more and more marginal and now it might lose
its members and revenue collections to the
agribusinesses. Classic
agrarian reform loses force, although the fight by black and indigenous
people for their territories grows. However, for them, land is a place
for life, not only space for production.
And the future?
There is no horizon with real signs of hope, other than that one
percent who hope without seeing anything. Maybe we
will meet in the
furnace of global warming, where the water of the Northeast will be
able to disappear completely in a few decades and the semi-arid,
finally, will be transformed into the desert that so many desire.
Source: Adital
Minister
of Justice Declares Tupinikim and Guarani Lands as Indigenous
After
decades of struggling, the Tupinikim and Guarani peoples reoccupied the
area which belongs to them and was under the possession of the Aracruz
Celulose company, in the north region of the state of
Espírito Santo.
On August 28, the minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, finally signed
administrative rulings which declare the 18,027 hectares claimed by
both peoples as an indigenous land.
To conclude the
administrative procedures for returning the lands to the indigenous
peoples, the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai) needs to
set up landmarks along the bounds of the area and, afterwards, the
president of the Republic can officially confirm these bounds.
The
Administrative Ruling represents “a victory of the people. We
were born
and raised here. There's no way we will let anybody say that we're not
from here,” declared Jonas do Rosário, chief of
the Irajá village. The
indigenous people's expectation, according to Jonas, is that a new
phase in the life of the Tupinikim and Guarani will begin.
“Now we're
bringing the communities together, encouraging them to plan their work
and to decide what to do with the eucalyptus and the land.”
Background
Since
the late 1970s, the Tupinikim and Guarani peoples have been fighting
for their lands, which began to be occupied by the Aracruz Cellulose
company in the 1960s. In 1983, after conflicts with the company, a
presidential decree authorized them to occupy 4,500 hectares. In 1995,
an anthropological report prepared by Funai concluded that the
indigenous land in the region covered 18,000 hectares. Two years later,
the then minister of Justice, Íris Resende, recognized this
report but
demarcated only 2,500 hectares for the indigenous people, leaving the
rest with the company. This decision was considered unconstitutional by
the Federal Prosecutor's Office.
From 2005 on, the Tupinikim and
Guarani began to reoccupy their land. In January 2006, 13 indigenous
people were injured in a violent action for removing 50 people from the
reoccupied area. 120 federal police officers, using concussion grenades
and rubber bullets, a helicopter, and equipment belonging to the
Aracruz Celulose company, supported by the Military Police,
participated in this action. All houses were destroyed and
set on
fire.
Two months later, Funai published a report reaffirming
that the 18,000 hectares claimed by both indigenous peoples were
indigenous land. The Aracruz company challenged the report, questioning
the ethnic identity of the Tupinikim and Guarani peoples. In September
2006, after evaluating these arguments, Funai upheld the recommendation
in favor of the indigenous peoples and referred the opinion to the then
minister Márcio Thomaz Bastos. Six months later, instead of
publishing
the administrative ruling, Thomaz Bastos returned the process to Funai,
indicating that an agreement should be reached between both parties.
Determined
not to give up their land, the Tupinikim and Guarani began to reoccupy
part of the area in July 2007. They rebuilt the two villages destroyed
by the Police in 2006.
Source: Boletim Mundo, September 3, 2007, Cimi
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