Since the creation of the National Technical Commission (CTNBio) in 2005, biotech multinationals have benefited with consecutive approvals without exception of all of the petitions to release transgenic varieties in Brazil. Between 2005 and the end of 2009, CTNBio will give full reign to the commercial planting of two different varieties of soybean, ten varieties of corn, and six varieties of cotton, and will release a variety of rice of the multinational Bayer, which will put into risk the food security of the country, according to Embrapa.

On November 25th, the National Forum for Agrarian Reform and Land Justice attended a hearing in Brasília with the Federal Government, where it presented an overview of where land reform currently stands, and criticized an offensive by landowners. During the meeting, attending organizations - among them the MST, Contag, CNBB, MPA, and MAB - delivered a letter of demands to the Federal Government, represented by minister Luiz Dulci (Secretary-General of the Presidency), INCRA’s president, Rolf Hachbart, and by the Presidency’s Head of Staff, Gilberto Carvalho.

The Military Police took action on the Buriti homelands

Brasil do Fato, December 2, 2009

Today, 19 November, a group of landowners accompanied by armed security guards evicted without a court order the Terena (indigenous) community of 300 who had taken over part of the Buriti land in the municipality of Sidrolândia in Mato Grosso do Sul. A battalion of about 50 police participated in the military action.

Plots of the ruling class - sectors of the judiciary, the Congress, the national court of accounts, prosecutors and the media - are crafting another offensive against the MST and the workers. We can see that offensive in the creation of another CPI to investigate the movement, the third installed in the last four years. This offensive is also shown by the reaction of the media in the face of protests in Pará.

To transform the unequal and unjust structures of our society was always one of the objectives of the Movimento Sem Terra, in order to build a sovereign nation and win a dignified life for the workers. It is for that reason that we have dedicated our energies to bringing about an effective agrarian reform that would democratize access to land and ensure food production. But over the course of our 25 years, we have also joined the ranks of those who fight to defend and expand rights of workers. An important part of this fight is the campaign to reduce working hours to 40 hours, without reduction of salary.

Regarding the latest reports that have reverberated in the media, the MST national directorate would like to make the following public announcement.

1. Our struggle is for the democratization of property, which is constantly becoming more and more concentrated in our country. The 2006 census, disclosed this past week, revealed that Brazil has the highest concentration of land in the world. There are lefewer than 15 thousand large landowners with estates of over 2,500 hectares and who possess upwards of a total of 98 million hectares. About 1% of all the landowners control nearly 46% of the land.