VZCZCXRO4447
PP RUEHRG
DE RUEHRG #0034/01 1490057
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 280057Z MAY 08
FM AMCONSUL RECIFE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0731
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 0908
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 0391
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO PRIORITY 0382
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE USD FAS WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 0965

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RECIFE 000034 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ELAB PHUM PINS PGOV SOCI BR
SUBJECT: NORTHEAST BRAZIL: LANDLESS MOVEMENT TRIES TO RE-INVENT 
ITSELF 
 
REF: SAO PAULO 248 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Just as in southern Brazil (reftel), the 
Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), and their fellow 
travelers in the always-disadvantaged northeast region, seem to 
be changing tactics; with confrontation less appealing, they 
appear to be re-positioning themselves and trying to get on the 
government "gravy train." Membership has been affected by 
President Lula's "Bolsa Familia" program of cash transfers to 
the poor. Unable to seize any more "unproductive" farms, as 
agro-industry increases production, the land reform activists 
opt for reinventing themselves as advocates for small-scale 
rural development and alternative energy, according to sources 
in the Catholic Church. End Summary 
 
¶2. (SBU) Father Herminio Canova, who heads the northeast 
region's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) for the Catholic 
Church's National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB), met 
with the principal officer in Recife May 21. He and one of the 
CPT lawyers gave an overview of how the land reform movement was 
changing. Father Herminio had recently been on a march to 
Brasilia, then visited the conflict area along the 
Brazil-Venezuela border in Roraima, where clashes took place 
between indigenous people and rice farmers. The priest said the 
CPT was launching a national campaign to limit the size of large 
land-holdings "to defend agrarian reform, territorial and food 
sovereignty." He explained that the long-standing campaign to 
seize and divide up "unproductive" farms had reached a dead end; 
in the current economy, agro-industry was using most land that 
could increase production. So, according to Father Herminio, the 
landless movement is now going to focus on consolidation of the 
lands already seized, demanding faster loans for the members and 
encouraging them to get involved with alternative forms of 
energy, mainly bio-fuels. 
 
¶3. (U) The ethanol boom has caught the attention of the settlers 
in the agrarian reform farms. They are now looking for crops 
that can be turned into fuel or other ways to produce energy 
with small-scale technologies. For the CPT, which opposes large 
scale hydro-electric dams, as well as the "near servitude" 
conditions of migrant workers on the sugar plantations, only 
renewable energy from small-scale projects should be pursued in 
order to preserve the environment and the Amazon region. Father 
Herminio said settlers in the land along the Sao Francisco River 
were interested in working with Petrobras to experiment on 
bio-fuel production. This irrigated area of agro-industry near 
Petrolina also has large concentrations of the landless movement 
settlements. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The CPT leader explained that in the northeast region, 
there are five main land reform groups - the MST, a splinter 
group known as the MLST, two federations of rural workers - 
FETRAPE and FETRAF-plus the "Central Syndicate" and nine smaller 
groups involved in pressuring the government to redistribute 
land. During this year's "Red April" land invasions, groups from 
this coalition invaded 14 farms across Pernambuco state. But 
according to the CPT, the number of invasions and the number of 
families taking part is declining, partly as a result of 
President Lula's "Bolsa Familia - which provides cash payments 
to mothers who vaccinate their children and keep them in school. 
Father Herminio said the key was giving the money to women, 
instead of men, thus ensuring it was spent on food. He said, 
"One woman told me, `I struggle at odd jobs, anything to earn 
the money that feeds my three children for 15 days, but it's 
President Lula who pays for the next 15.' That's how people see 
Bolsa Familia." 
 
¶5. (SBU) The priest said that women in the landless movement are 
receiving the Bolsa Familia payments even as they are squatting 
on land, waiting for the legal ownership that may take years to 
obtain. But families already receiving "Bolsa Familia" have 
little incentive to take the risks involved in joining a new 
occupation of land with no immediate hope for better living 
conditions. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Critics of the landless movement, including one school 
administrator who met with the consular staff and state law 
enforcement officers, say the occupations are a shake-down 
scheme. They say that the occupations in Red April get 
publicity, then the squatters negotiate certain sums or program 
concessions to go elsewhere. These critics point to the fact 
that those occupying contested land rarely plant any crops --not 
even subsistence beans or manioc which grows everywhere-around 
their hovels. 
 
 
RECIFE 00000034  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Father Herminio's view of the political situation 
reflects frustration with the slow pace of legalizing land 
claims and obtaining credit for farmers. He says the Lula 
government and Pernambuco Governor Eduardo Campos, a Lula ally, 
may talk about supporting the rural poor, but they don't "have 
control." He believes that, despite the lack of resources and 
credit, the settlers must become more productive. Violence in 
response to the land invaders may have lessened, the priest 
said, but the CPT reported murders resulting from land conflicts 
in 14 states last year, instead of just eight the previous year. 
 
¶8. (SBU) "Slave labor" --or entrapment into conditions of near 
servitude on remote ranches-- is still a major concern for the 
CPT. Father Herminio was particularly adamant about conditions 
for sugar cane workers on ethanol plantations in the south and 
west. He has heard complaints from Pernambuco cane cutters, 
rounded up when the harvest season ends here and taken south, 
that they work in inhumane conditions. This is the dark side of 
ethanol for the priest, who would still like to see the small 
farmers and squatters producing their own bio-fuel in a program 
sponsored by the government. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment: Brazil's agro-industry continues to expand, 
and the disparities between the rich and poor remain. While the 
MST and its offspring operate on the edges of the economy, 
denouncing large landowners in the name of oppressed, they have 
lost steam. They expected more support from President Lula, but 
they can't criticize him because he's too popular with their 
constituency thanks to his Bolsa Familia program. So the game is 
played behind the scenes; there are invasions to gain bargaining 
chips, then some credits or grants to partners of the movement 
that ensure the peace. Having reached this stalemate, the 
movement seems to be consolidating their holdings and looking 
for more popular causes to champion -such as defending the 
environment. 
 
This cable was coordinated with Embassy Brasilia. 
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