[11/30/06] AP Reports: Brazilian landless farmworkers occupy port to demand land

Brazilian landless farmworkers occupy port to demand land

The Associated Press | Published: November 30, 2006

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SAO PAULO, Brazil: Thousands of landless farmers occupied a port in a northeastern state for several hours Thursday to pressure the government to grant them ownership of land they have occupied for the past five years.

Led by the powerful Landless Rural Workers Movement, or MST, the farmers staged a peaceful protest inside the port of Maceio, a coastal city some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) northeast of Sao Paulo, in Alagoas state.

"Port activities were not affected nor were any facilities damaged," port administrator Domicio Silva said by telephone. "After being assured their demands would be met, they left — about eight hours after they arrived."

Sugar is the principal product shipped out of Maceio's port.

"We decided to leave the premises after the National Agrarian Reform Institute agreed to meet with us next week to discuss the title to the Agrisa sugar mill and its 20,000 hectares (49,420 acres) of land," MST press spokeswoman Barbara Seferino said by telephone. "About 2,000 families occupied the area when the sugar mill went bankrupt and its owners abandoned the land."

"Because the government has dragged its feet in granting us the land title, the courts keep ordering our eviction and we keep coming back," she added. "We can't go on this way any more."

The MST conducts high-profile and highly organized invasions of land it deems unproductive as a way to pressure the government to accelerate land reform in a country with one of the world's most uneven distributions of land.

About 3.5 percent of Brazil's landowners hold 56 percent of the arable terrain while the poorest 40 percent own a scant 1 percent.

Under Brazil's 1988 Constitution, unproductive land may be expropriated as long as the owner is compensated.

The MST has been stepping up its land invasions in several parts of the country after keeping a low profile for several months so as to not jeopardize President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's bid for a second term, which he won in October.

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Article originally available online at:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/30/america/LA_GEN_Brazil_Landless...