On 21 February, members of the Landless Rural
Workers' Movement (Movimento dos Sem-Terra, MST) killed four guards during fresh
land invasions in the northeastern state of Pernambuco, prompting renewed debate
about the political future of the group.
“Carnaval Vermelho"
Over the same
weekend (coinciding with Brazil's annual carnival), an estimated 2,000 militants
from a dissident wing of the MST invaded 20 plantations in 14 municipalities
around Pontal do Paranapanema, in the east of São Paulo state, governed by the
leading opposition contender for the 2012 presidential elections, José Serra of
the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB). The militants, linked to the radical dissident José Rainha Júnior, one of the original
founders of the MST, said this so-called 'Red Carnival' was designed to put pressure
on the discredited National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra)
to speed up the process of land reform in the area.
Subsequent to the killings, the MST
said its members were acting in self defence, arguing that armed police
militias were embedded with the guards. The
group also responded rather polemically to questions as to why it had been bearing
arms in the first place - asserting that arms were necessary
“tools of the trade" against the contract thugs hired by landowners.
The killings in Pernambuco prompted the president of the
supreme court, Gilmar Mendes, to speak out. He harshly condemned the group's
actions, called for prosecutions and, more controversially,
accused the federal government, led by President Lula da Silva, of indirectly promoting violence
through its financing of the MST, which has historically had tight
connections with Lula and his ruling leftwing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT).
Mendes said the MST had the right to protest, but must
respect the rights of others and should not invade public or private land. He
was also critical of what he said was “an excess of tolerance and a certain paternalism" on the part of Brazilians towards the group in
the past. Implying that the PT government is still too indulgent of the group,
he made it clear that any such lenience “damages the constitution"
and called for firm action against the group by the authorities.
Adding fat to the fire, he went on to suggest that militant groups linked to the
MST and operating under the guise of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were receiving public funds
illicitly, warning that the government could be held responsible if found
to be indirectly subsidising such groups, which, he noted, is illegal.
The financing of NGOs is already a sore point with the
government which, following a review last year, controversially stripped some organisations
of their federal funding and set much stricter compliance rules for the future. The
move was widely slammed by NGOs, which accused the Lula administration
of attempting to silence its critics, particularly on the environmental front.
Mendes' statement, which he later insisted was in an official (and not
personal) capacity, left the government openmouthed and sparked renewed debate about
the parlous state of relations between the executive and the judiciary.
The administration initially went on the offence against
Mendes, defending the MST's right to federal financing and denying that any
funds were being diverted to illicit militant groups. The agrarian development
minister, Guilherme Cassel, accused Mendes of making a “political statement"
against the MST, unbecoming of his position as the highest judge in the land.
However, it didn't help that the recently-elected heads of the congress and the
senate, Michel Temer and José Sarney of the allied Partido do Movimento
Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB), as well as the National Agriculture Confederation (CNA), all took Mendes'
side. Some conservative rural representatives in congress extravagantly compared the MST
to the leftwing guerilla group, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc).
Under political pressure, and with the opposition press
happily blowing up the story, on 2 March Lula spoke out. He said the MST's
argument that it was acting in self defence was “unacceptable justification" for
the four killings and that justice must be done. He also warned
the group, which with he has had increasingly frayed relations in recent years, that
they were “old enough now to know the difference between legal
and illegal". Cassel also promised an investigation into the financing allegations.
For the MST, its latest actions - which some felt were
designed not only to put pressure on the government but also (rather perversely)
to give the impression to the electorate that the Lula/PT government was the
only authority capable of dealing with the group - well and truly
backfired. Some opposition commentators were clear that it was no
coincidence that the 'Red Carnival' took place on José Serrra's home ground of
São Paulo
state.
As Mendes indicated, Brazilians may still have a soft
spot for the MST, which was a prominent agitator for social change in the 1980s,
but the group is no longer the political force it once was. This is partly due
to the fact that its social causes have been co-opted by the Lula government
- for example analysts point out that the government's Bolsa Familia
welfare scheme, which reaches around 11.2m low-income families (some 44m
people), has weakened part of the group's raison d'être
.
Notwithstanding social progress under Lula, the
sensitive issue of land reform has not gone away in Brazil. However, the MST and
the government remain at odds over the scale and pace of reform efforts. MST
leaders still fume that Lula reneged on a 2002 electoral promise to re-settle one million families
on unused lands. In reply, Lula points out that a record 43m hectares of
idle or unused lands have been expropriated by his administration, with
520,000 families resettled since 2002, more than under any other government.
The truth is that the MST now needs Lula and the PT more than they need it. The MST, for
all its bickering with Lula, would be loath to see the PT lose power,
for fear that an opposition-led government would take a much tougher
approach towards the group - and potentially cut off its funding.
This latest incident, however, demonstrates the waning
public tolerance for radical militancy, and will thus put pressure on the PT to
re-evaluate its political relationship with the group ahead of the 2012
elections.
Of late the MST, which recently marked its 25th
anniversary, has grappled with something of an identity crisis, having recast
itself as part of the broader anti-globalisation movement. It is heavily
involved in the annual World Social Forum in Belén, Brazil, which Lula helped
found in 2001 as a counter-movement to the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland. The MST leadership is under also pressure as a result of its latest
actions, which sparked fears that it is not in control of its various
factions.
In the past year, the MST has targeted lands run by the
Opportunity Group, owned by the disgraced banker Daniel Dantas, for invasion,
alleging that they were acquired illegally, possibly for money laundering
purposes. Since July 2008, the MST has invaded 13 properties belonging to the
group, the majority located in eastern São Paulo state, including several of the
farms occupied in the recent 'Red Carnival'. In 2008, local media reports
suggested that Agropecuária Santa Bárbara (owned by the Opportunity group)
illegally purchased five ranches in southeastern Pará. The MST alleges that the lands had been assigned for re-settlement
by the state government and thus were not legally eligible to be sold. Dantas
allegedly owns some 450,000 head of cattle, grazing on 510,000ha in
Pará.
