POPULATION-BRAZIL: “Landless” Hostages held by Police

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 2 1996 (IPS) - The four Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) members detained in Pontal de Paranapanema, 600 kilometres from Sao Paulo, are hostages of a local justice system which plans to exchange them for the MST leader Jose Rainha, according to claims by the movement.

Jovelino Strozak, speaking for the 100 MST leaders demonstrating in Sao Paulo revealed that the Police wanted Rainha in order to set the others free.

Both Rainha, and another leader, Marcio Barreto are currently on the police wanted list, and according to Strozak, the police officer suggesting the swap threatened Rainha would be killed if he didn’t turn himself in.

This “indecent proposal,” had until Wednesday afternoon to be met.

Strozak said the non-appearance of Rainha meant the local justice system had collaborated with the police and local landowners, refusing to release the leaders.

Judge Fernando Marcondes refused to withdraw the detention orders on the prisoners as he claimed “the threat to public order still exists,” as the “Landless” announced they would continue to occupy land.

The police also prevented the “Landless” from setting up camp outside the state Legislative Assembly, though local unions offered to put them up.

Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso told ruling party MPs he was irritated by the action of the MST and small farmers who invaded public buildings and confronted police over the last few days, leaving several people wounded.

Cardoso is prepared to suspend negotiations with these groups until the demonstrations are stopped.

The president accused the “Landless” of converting land reform into a “police issue,” when the government was ready to settle 60,000 families this year and a total of 280,000 during its four year term.

The land conflicts burst out in August, when a police attack on a MST camp in Rondonia, northwest Brazil, left at least 12 people dead, bringing the issue to the forefront of Brazilian politics.

There is general public consensus that land ownership needs to be democratised, as at present only one percent of the population own 44 percent of the national territory.

Ladislau Dowbor, economist in the Catholic University Sao Paulo, said the situation in rural Brazil is similar to “that of the United States if the Southerners had won the civil war” 130 years ago and kept their enormous estates and slavery.

Senator Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist and writer, said diametrically opposed laws, adopted in both cases half way through the 19th century, meant that Brazil and the United States had totally different land ownership systems.

Brazilian law grants no land ownership rights, while in the US family agriculture spread with the immigrants gradually westward, allowing each family 30 hectares to plant for a five year term.

Meanwhile, the South American nation granted autonomy to the large land owners in compensation for the abolition of slavery.

This policy led to the hyperconcentration of land ownership and the present legal and practical difficulties in changing the rural situation.

The issue is recognised as one of the most crucial social issues in the nation, even amongst the urban population.