MST website
May 2002
João Pedro Stédile

Over the Easter holiday, hundreds of soldiers from Aeronautics and the army were not able to celebrate with their friends and families, because they had to stay at Alcântara in a state of alert: the MST was going to occupy the base. While Holy Week was getting into full swing, hundreds of soldiers from São Luis were sent to the area. Airplanes from the base in Belém and helicopters reinforced the defenses. What was this efficient intelligence service that detected this "threat" from the MST?

The response to this question is comical. All of the agitation arose from a joke from one of the residents of the nearby agricultural settlements. As part of a tradition in the area, there was a gathering of neighbors and family members, fewer than 30 people, who camped on the beach near the military base to fish and prepare for Holy Week. While passing the guard post of the base, the group was asked who they were -- to which they replied jokingly that they belonged to the MST and that they were going to occupy the area. The soldier notified the sergeant, who notified the colonel. The base commander, in turn, notified the São Luis, Belém and Brasília. The army leadership could not believe that it was nothing more than a joke. And the base stayed at maximum alert through Monday.

Jokes aside (although this episode reveals unjustified paranoia), Brazilian society needs to recognize exactly what is happening in Alcântara. In 1980, the Brazilian government decided to install a national base for rocket launches. To do this, the government expropriated no less than 62,000 hectares of land. This is an absurdity. The base could function with just 8,000 hectares, which is in fact the area it occupies. Hundreds of families were relocated from the area. They received houses, but did not receive adequate properties for subsistence. And the residents, without alternatives for survival, are are turning to cultivate lands inside the base, i.e., inside the 62,000 hectares. And this is the only viable solution: the right of these families to cultivate their lands, tended since decades ago.

But another danger is still in sight. In October 2000, the government of FHC signed a preliminary agreement with the USA for use of the base. The agreement is still in discussion in the Brazilian Congress. But what the United States wants is to install in Alcântara a true military base under its control. And it promises to pay, per year, $34 million, as if the sovereignty of our territory could be bought. The experts argue that what the Americans want, in fact, is to get a foothold at the entrance to Amazonia and transform Alcântara into another Guantanamo.

The Americans control 60% of the worldwide rocket launching bases; they don't need Alcântara. But they do need to create an enclosure around Amazonia, just as they have begun to do with their bases in Bolivia, Equador and Colombia.

As it is, what is left for the poor families of the county of Alcântara? Only prostitution for the American soldiers, while their rights to work the land are usurped?

We hope that our parliamentary representatives, who will have to approve the accord, will help the Brazilian people to defend its sovereignty and its territory, and that the people of Alcântara will be guaranteed the right to work the land. That certainly won't get in the way of launching Brazilian Rockets.