The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) once again invaded the area of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) in Petrolina, in the backlands of Pernambuco. In a statement, the MST accused the federal government of not complying with the agreements promised in April.
The invasion takes place on the eve of the Semi-Arid Show event, scheduled for August 1st to 4th at the Embrapa unit in Petrolina.
According to the movement, “the reoccupation during the event aims to draw the attention of the authorities to the emergence of the implementation of the Agrarian Reform, considering that since the negotiations with the competent bodies, there has been no progress in the agendas and the agreements have been stagnant”.
The MST had occupied the Embrapa area in April – the month in which the Movement traditionally carries out a greater number of actions to promote agrarian reform – and left the site after negotiations with the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA).
According to the Movement’s communiqué, the federal government promised at the time: the allocation of part of the area for agrarian reform; transfer of areas to settle the families that were part of the occupation; and the recreation of the Superintendence of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) in Petrolina.
In the communiqué, the MST states that “it has been 4 months since this agreement, which had as its main intention: to ease the situation in Petrolina, solve the problem of the encampment and, at the same time, allow Embrapa to carry out the Semi-Arid Show”.
“The MDA broke with all the agreements and tries to make the Semi-Arid Show without complying with anything that was agreed to resolve the issue of the families in the camp”, says the statement. The MST adds that it does not want to disrupt the event, but will not allow it to take place “if the minimum of the minimum is not met”.
The Semi-Arid Show is a technological innovation fair focused on family farming in the Brazilian semi-arid region. The MST says it awaits the presence of the federal government, which would attend the event through the MDA and Incra, for new negotiations.
In a note, Embrapa expressed its repudiation of the act and said that the company “quickly adopted all the necessary measures to vacate the area, aiming to hold the said event on the premises of Embrapa Semi-Arid, as planned, with internal support and from various structures government, including ministries, Incra and other competent bodies”.
According to Embrapa, all MST occupants have already left the site and work for the official opening of the event on Tuesday (1st) is proceeding normally.
A CNN contacted the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture and is awaiting a response.
Invasions in 2023
According to a survey by the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA) obtained by the CNN, the number of invasions of rural properties registered in the country only from january to april has already surpassed the last few years.
There were 56 invasions of rural properties in the first four months of 2023 alone.
The number of invasions in the field was 182 in 2015, 57 in 2016 and 40 in 2017. From 2018 to 2022, it was between 11 and 23 cases per year.
Almost a third of the cases occurred in Bahia, the state with the largest number of families in camps, according to the MST. The Movement estimates that around 70,000 of the 100,000 families in this situation are in the Northeast.
After Bahia, the biggest records are in Pernambuco and São Paulo, according to the CNA balance sheet.
Source: CNN Brasil
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