MST Informas

Dear Friends of the MST,

We came to your presence to inform you of some very important recent events that happened in the struggle for Brazilian Agrarian Reform, and the situation in the countryside in general.

In recent years, capital has been implementing the model of agricultural production of agribusiness that we have denounced as perverse to the interests of the Brazilian people. A model based on monoculture, intensive use of poisons that contaminate food, unemployment and the expulsion of the rural population. A model that destroys biodiversity and has serious consequences for the climate balance.

The MST expresses solidarity with the indigenous fighting in Mato Grosso do Sul in defending their territories and against the appropriation of land by agribusiness.

The Brazilian state, with the decision to expel the indigenous from the Buriti Fazenda and Federal Police action to repossess the occupied land in the municipality of Sidrolândia, acts to defend the right of agribusiness and large farmers, instead of fulfilling what is required by the Constitution.

Seventeen years have passed since that fateful April 17. On that day in 1996, a march of rural workers organized by the MST was blockaded and attacked by military police in the city of Eldorado dos Carajás, Pará state. 19 people were killed on the spot and 2 others died days afterwards. The day of the Eldorado dos Carajás massacre has officially become the National Day of Struggle for Land Reform.

FINAL DECLARATION OF THE PEOPLES’ SUMMIT AT RIO+20 FOR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMONS, AGAINST THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE