MST clarification: Titling is not Agrarian Reform

From the MST webpage

The federal government released data on land entitlement by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), in an event in Marabá, Pará, last Friday (18/6).

There are more than 80 thousand families in need of land all over Brazil, and the Bolsonaro government has not expropriated any latifundios (large land estates) so far. 

What he calls “Agrarian Reform” is the recognition and/or replacement of families already living in expropriated areas and lots.

And worse, aside from not settling any families, Bolsonaro has paralyzed 413 expropriation processes that were in progress. In addition, INCRA abandoned more than 187 processes authorized by the judiciary for emission of possession.

Together with his cronies, the special secretary for Land Issues at the Ministry of Agriculture, the ruralist Luiz Nabhan Garcia, and the president of INCRA, Geraldo Melo Filho, Bolsonaro wants to put an end to Agrarian Reform in Brazil. 

An example of this is the recent Titula Brasil program, which creates new obstacles for the democratization of access to land, prioritizing the titling and handing over of public lands and encouraging land grabbing.

Such disregard and retrogression was even denounced by the MST at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS), in a meeting held in late 2020.

Therefore, we denounce yet another lie of the Bolsonaro mis-government. We demand real and effective public policies, such as the full approval of Bill 735, which Bolsonaro vetoed 14 articles out of the 17 it contained.

Bolsonaro’s veto prevented the application of the project that allowed the public authorities to buy directly from family farms and donate the food to the poorest families in the cities.

Aligned with the Rural Caucus, Bolsonaro and his government lie. Their commitments continue to be with landowners, land grabbers, businessmen, and profit.

Landless Rural Workers Movement – MST