On the morning of this Monday (15), about 200 families from the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) occupied an unproductive farm in the city of Campinas (São Paulo). The area of approximately 200 hectares, taken over by degraded pasture, is owned by a real estate company, Zezito Empreendimentos Ltda.
The occupation is part of Red April, a national struggle that MST carries out annually in the month when, in 1996, the Eldorado do Carajás Massacre took place. This year, the motto of the journey is 'Occupy to feed Brazil.'
In addition to denouncing the amount of land in the region that, without fulfilling its social function, serves only real estate speculation, Patrícia Maria from MST said the occupation demands "that this land be destined for agrarian reform, to produce healthy food, to reforest this degraded soil and to build new human relationships."
The first assembly of the occupation, in which families divided themselves into groups such as health, food, and collective structure assembly, took place under one of the few remaining trees in the middle of the pasture of Santa Mariana Farm. "They left this jatobá (jatobá is a Brazilian tree used in the manufacture of varnish) as a witness to the destruction of the Atlantic Forest. Around it, we will build our shacks," said Jelson Souza, a member of MST, remembering that "enslaved Black people cultivated the lands of this region over many years. Campinas was one of the last cities to abolish slavery, even after the Golden Law."
Seven vehicles from the Military Police and the Municipal Civil Guard of Campinas arrived at the area around 8 am. They remained at the camp's entrance until the completion of this article.
Brasil de Fato contacted the company via email and is awaiting a position to update the article.
The owner self-declares the unproductivity of the area
"Our motto this year aims to dialogue with society about the importance of land fulfilling its social function," emphasized Margarida Silva from the national coordination of MST.
"We occupy the question of why the law is not complied with. A serious agrarian reform policy should expropriate large estates that do not comply, that do not produce, that commit environmental crimes or that subject person to work analogous to slavery," explained Silva, citing article 184 of the Federal Constitution, which determines that "it is up to the Union to expropriate for social interest, for agrarian reform purposes, the rural property that is not fulfilling its social function."
In a document sent to Campinas city hall in 2015 as part of the Master Plan review, Zezito Empreendimentos Ltda self-declared the impossibility of making productive activities viable in the location.
"The development of rural activities to maintain is unviable in this location, which currently only generates losses and large expenses," said the owner when requesting a change in the city's zoning so that the area is considered urban expansion.
In the same document, the company says it aspires to have the area's destination be of social interest. In a note, the MST states it has the same desire: "We claim that the land is destined for agrarian reform purposes, finally becoming productive."
Souza explains that Santa Mariana Farm is unproductive and was once a part of São Bento Farm, a large estate that has since been dismembered. "It has already been proven that the interest of the owning company is not agricultural production. They intend to build houses, probably condominiums, in this area. So MST takes this action to denounce the real estate ventures that usurp these areas in the metropolitan region of São Paulo that use speculative capital to increase their profits and use the argument that they will build social interest housing to snatch the public fund", he stressed.
Pressure on the government
The occupation in Campinas, as well as other actions that MST carries out this Monday (15) and throughout the week, occurs when popular movements in the field criticize the insufficiency of agrarian reform policies by the federal government.
In addition to claiming a larger budget for the area, MST demands the debureaucratization of farmers' access to credit and public policies and the settlement of 65 thousand families who live camped in the country.
"It's been a year and four months of Lula's government, and we assess that the government has taken several initiatives for the population as a whole, but for the agrarian issue, it is still far behind," emphasizes Silva.
Edited by: Vivian Virissimo
