Weekly Report - 15 July 2003

Perhaps encouraged by justice minister Márcio Thomaz Bastos's warning about using 'utmost severity' against any breaches of the law by the MST or landowners, a judge unexpectedly ordered the arrest of a top MST leader, taking advantage of the fact that he was in his court testifying on an old case. 

José Rainha, leader of the MST camp at the Pontal do Parapanema (southwestern corner of São Paulo state), was arrested after he had testified at a court in Teodoro Sampião about an MST 'occupation' of a bank in 2001. No information was given about the charges against him. 

The Pontal encampment, which the MST says now holds 3,600 peasant families, is considered the site where violence is most likely to break out, as local landowners have mustered groups of gunmen to repel any attempt at a land 'invasion'. 

The tension there has been rising by the week, with television newscasts broadcasting intimidatory statements by hooded gunmen -such as the proposal to use cropdusters to spray the MST camp with gasoline, then set fire to it. 

This is not Rainha's first time behind bars. In May 2000 he was acquitted of complicity in the murder of a fazendeiro and a police officer during an MST occupation of a farm.