Radio Mundo Real

120 families occupied the Rancho Verde field and other 250 did the same in “Fazenda Motum”. Both unproductive fields are located in the South-East region of Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The occupants are all members of the Rural Landless Workers Movement (MST).

The MST’s website includes an interview with Nilo da Silva, from the MST State Coordination, who explained the main features of these occupations that are questioned by the massive media.

Da Silva said that these families live in cities near the fields. “Most of them have been unemployed for a long time”, said the MST leader.

The occupations took place on June 14th, and they have set up a campsite. They are waiting for the beginning of negotiations with the Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA).

Yesterday, the MST reported on the political reasons of these measures: “Family peasants are the ones who produce food in this country. Even without the necessary incentives, they produce 75% of the food we eat in Brazil”.

In April, in the context of the International Day of Peasant Struggle, the landless workers had said that they would implement drastic measures if the authorities didn’t move forward on the granting of lands for the agrarian reform.

The owners generally respond with violence to the struggles for land in Brazil. This week, the Pastoral Land Commission reported on the murdered of another rural worker in Pará, the state with the worst numbers in Brazil in terms of the persecution of leaders.

Leader Obede Loyla Souza was shot in the back and killed on June 9th. His death has to be added to a long list of victims in Pará.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/we_float/