VZCZCXRO6553
PP RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0150/01 0541844
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 231844Z FEB 07
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6469
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 7572
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 2939
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 2648
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 2281
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 3237
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 1996
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 3394
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 7831
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 2718
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASH DC 0014
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SAO PAULO 000150 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, DRL/IL, INR/IAA, INR/R/AA 
STATE PASS USTR FOR CRONIN 
STATE PASS EXIMBANK 
STATE PASS OPIC FOR DMORONESE, NRIVERA, CVERVENNE 
STATE ALSO PASS TDA FOR ANGULO AND MCKINNEY 
NSC FOR FEARS 
TREASURY FOR OASIA, DAS LEE AND JHOEK 
USDOC FOR 4332/ITA/MAC/WH/OLAC 
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USCS/OIO/WH/RD 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
DOL FOR ILAB 
USAID FOR LAC/AA 
 
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 
---------------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
SAO PAULO 00000150  002 OF 004 
 
 
 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? 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
 
SAO PAULO 00000150  003 OF 004 
 
 
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. 
 
--------------------------- 
FEDERAL VS STATE GOVERNMENT 
--------------------------- 
 
¶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 
------------------ 
 
¶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 
 
SAO PAULO 00000150  004 OF 004 
 
 
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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