MST INVASIONS IN WESTERN SAO PAULO STATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SAO PAULO 000150

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR ELAB PGOV PINS PINR BR
SUBJECT: MST INVASIONS IN WESTERN SAO PAULO STATE

REF: (A) SAO PAULO 129 (B) 06 BRASILIA 1138

(C) 06 SAO PAULO 332

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY

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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) Summary: Since February 18, Brazil's Landless Movement
(MST) has invaded thirteen farms in the far west of Sao Paulo state.
The de facto leader of the actions has indicated that more
invasions are forthcoming if the government does not get serious
soon about land reform and redistribution. In what appears to be a
new twist, agricultural workers affiliated with the United Workers
Center (CUT),Brazil's largest labor confederation, which is itself
closely linked to President Lula da Silva's Workers' Party (Partido
dos Trabalhadores - PT),have been participating in the invasions.
The MST is calling on the state government to enter into a dialogue,
but a member of Governor Jose Serra's cabinet has stated that while
the state government is prepared to take action to ameliorate the
land situation in the troubled Pontal region, per the 1988
Constitution, agrarian reform falls under the jurisdiction of the
federal government. A separate group, the Landless Liberation
Movement, has reportedly carried out an invasion of its own in Minas
Gerais state. The social movements may be trying to get President
Lula to pay more attention to their concerns as he begins his second
term. End Summary.

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NO CARNAVAL FOR THE LANDLESS
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2. (U) The Rural Workers' Landless Movement (MST) has conducted
thirteen land invasions in southwestern Sao Paulo state over the
past five days. Per ref C, the area of activity, known as the Pontal
do Paranapanema, has historically been the site of land disputes,
with allegations of forged land titles and illegal sales of
property. In a number of cases, the state has tried to reclaim
title, with cases languishing for years in the courts. The MST has
taken advantage of the ambiguity over ownership by claiming the land
belongs to nobody and thus should be redistributed to the landless.
Some of the properties invaded are located in the Alta Paulista area
adjacent to the Pontal.


3. (U) Background: The MST was formed in 1985 to campaign for
agrarian reform. Since then it has staged numerous of occupations
of public and private "unproductive" land to pressure the federal
and state governments to speed up and increase the scope of land
reform. Its activities have brought it into conflict with a number
of local landowners and with the government. MST routinely invades
and occupies farms it considers unproductive. While occupying the
farms, MST members usually slaughter livestock and harvest crops to
feed themselves. When a judicial order is issued, they usually
vacate the premises but do not respond for the damages. End
Background.


4. (U) This week's land invasions have been carried out under the
leadership of Jose Rainha Junior, a long-time leader of the MST in
the Pontal who, as recounted ref C, was divested last year of
responsibility by the MST national leadership for allegedly failing
to obey orders and to adhere to the principles and norms of the
landless movement. Rainha was apparently leading invasions and
trying to negotiate on behalf of the MST without authority to do so.

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With respect to this week's activities, the MST has confirmed that
some 2000 members have participated in the land invasions, and has
so far not publicly disavowed either Rainha or his actions. He
reportedly directly controls nine of eleven squatter camps in the
Pontal, comprising some 1500 people, and administers the other two.
According to press reports, he wields influence over some 6,000
settler families in the region.


5. (U) Biographic Note: Rainha was convicted in 1997 of
orchestrating the murders of a local landowner and a policeman in
the state of Espirito Santo. Rainha was sentenced to 26 years
imprisonment on charges of homicide in a trial which, according to
Amnesty International, did not meet international fair trial
standards. Under Brazilian law, anyone sentenced to more than 20
years in prison is automatically entitled to a second jury trial. A
jury acquitted Rainha in the retrial on the murder charges,
reversing the 1997 conviction. In 2005 he and three other MST
leaders were found guilty of arson, robbery, and other charges and
sentenced to 10 years in prison. The charges stemmed from a 2000
invasion of the Santana de Alcidia farm in Sao Paulo state. Rainha,
then a fugitive from justice, was arrested in 2002, but was later
released by Brazil's Supreme Court. End Biographic Note.


6. (U) Rainha, 45, was associated with President Lula in the 1980s
when they were both union leaders fighting Brazil's military regime.
He has stated publicly that Brazil has one of the worst land
distribution ratios in the world, with about half of all arable land
in the hands of about two percent of the population. The press is
full of speculation that his current activities in the Pontal could
get him sent back to jail, a prospect he claims not to fear.

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LABOR CONFEDERATION SOLIDARITY WITH MST?
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7. (U) Something new in the recent land occupations is the
involvement of the United Workers' Center (CUT),Brazil's largest
labor confederation. The CUT's National Executive issued a
statement in support of the MST's actions on the grounds that the
struggle for land reform is legitimate. At the same time, an
official at CUT headquarters in Sao Paulo told Econ Specialist that
CUT supports the MST struggle for land reform but does not
participate directly in violent land seizure or occupation of farms
that the MST considers unproductive. The CUT representative said
that the occupations near Presidente Prudente, a city in the Pontal,
were a decision of local unions affiliated with CUT and that the CUT
is not responsible for their acts. A leader of the Sao Paulo state
CUT, Edilson de Paula, was quoted by media as saying some 800
agricultural workers and unemployed CUT members have participated in
the invasions. However, the CUT coordinator in Presidente Prudente
echoed the position of the national organization, asserting that the
CUT does not participate in land occupations and attributing
activities to that local agricultural worker's unions affiliated
with the CUT. Edilson de Paula stressed that the CUT has always
respected the autonomy of its constituent unions and considers the
land occupations appropriate because land reform has moved so slowly
in Sao Paulo state.


8. (U) Meanwhile, Sao Paulo Secretary of Justice Luiz Antonio
Guimaraes Marrey expressed a willingness to meet with MST leaders to
help resolve the dispute, but stressed that the occupations were
illegal and that the squatters would have to withdraw from the land
before negotiations could take place. On February 22, a judge in
Santo Anastacio (near Presidente Prudente) ordered squatters to

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withdraw from three of the properties, threatening daily fines in
the case of non-compliance. The judge was responding to a complaint
filed by the Rural Democratic Union (UDR),which represents
landowner interests. The UDR plans to file more court cases in the
hopes of getting the land cleared of squatters and bringing the
invasions to an end. Police expect the MST to withdraw from the
three properties by late Friday.

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FEDERAL VS STATE GOVERNMENT
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9. (U) Marrey also noted that while there were certain actions the
state government could take to help resolve some land disputes and
distribute more land to those who need it, ultimately it was the
federal government that would have to act, since the Constitution
assigns responsibility for land reform to the federal government.
He noted that the MST and CUT have close political ties to the
federal government and suggested that they should direct their
demands to Brasilia. (Note: The state government is in the hands of
the main opposition party to President Lula's Workers Party (PT);
Governor Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB)
ran unsuccessfully against Lula in 2002 and is expected to be a
candidate again in 2010. End Note.)


10. (SBU) Guilherme Cassel, Minister for Agrarian Development,
which is responsible for land reform, noted the historical tensions
over land in the Pontal and intimated that invasions are
understandable in certain cases in which justice has been long
delayed. He criticized the state government, which he said should
be working in partnership with the federal government to resolve the
problem. Cassel and his predecessor, Miguel Rossetto, both belong
to the leftist Democratic Socialism faction of the PT, and are both
from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, as is the
faction's leader, state legislator Raul Pont. Rossetto resigned in
March 2006 to run unsuccessfully for the Senate and is now
considered a likely candidate for Mayor of Porto Alegre. The
Democratic Socialists are close to the left-wing social movements
that make up a considerable part of the PT's base, but are currently
in strife with the party's more moderate Majority Faction (see ref
A). Despite this supposed closeness, MST leader Rainha was
unsparing in his criticism of the Lula government's inaction on land
reform issues and stated that removal of Cassel and appointment of a
Minister more willing and able to implement rapid and comprehensive
land reform was one of MST's conditions for retreating from the
occupied land.

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RETURN OF THE MLST
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11. (U) A separate group, the Movement for the Liberation of the
Landless (MLST),carried out an occupation February 20 in the
so-called "Mineiro Triangle" of Minas Gerais state, north of Sao
Paulo. Their stated intention was to pressure the Institute for
Colonization and Land Reform (INCRA) to create more settlements.
MLST is the group that undertook a violent invasion of the Chamber
of Deputies in June 2006 (ref B). Its president, Bruno Maranhao,
was suspended from his position as PT Secretary for Social Movements
and membership on the party's National Executive Committee in the
aftermath of that incident.

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COMMENT

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12. (SBU) Comment: The MST is clearly trying to test the mettle of
the new administration of Sao Paulo Governor Jose Serra. Many of
the land initiatives undertaken by ex-Governor (2001-06) and later
presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin became bogged down in
bureaucracy and bore little fruit. The MST may be hoping to extort
better results from Serra. At the same time, leftist elements of
the PT repeatedly expressed frustration during President Lula's
first term that despite his background in poverty and the labor
movement - he helped found both the PT and its sister organization,
the CUT - he has governed Brazil like a centrist and has not done
nearly enough for the poor. Now that he has been re-elected, the
social movements are hoping to collect on what they think he owes
them. End Comment.


13. (U) This cable was coordinated/cleared with Embassy Brasilia.

MCMULLEN