Brazil & Southern Cone - March 2009 (ISSN 1741-4431)

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.

• MST on the back foot

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.

• Invading Dantas' lands

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.