Brazil - Cablegate : how the US sees the landless movement in Brazil [View All]

[Joanne98]

New cables published by Wikileaks reveal that the U.S. embassy and consulates in Brazil are deeply concerned about the Landless People’s Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra or MST). The diplomats claim that the three decade old movement is losing power because of outgoing President Lula’s land poverty reduction programs.

MST began after a December 1980 takeover of three unproductive farms in Brazil’s southern-most state of Rio Grande do Sul by 6,000 landless families. The organization came into formal existence in 1984 when Brazil’s military dictatorship came to a close. Today MST claims an estimated 1.5 million landless members in 23 out of Brazil’s 26 states and is easily the most powerful agricultural movement in Latin America.

Over the past few years U.S. consular officials around Brazil have dispatched a series of assessments to Washington about the movement, its membership, and its political techniques and power.

Land Occupation Concerns Embassy

An October 2005 cable demonstrates the serious concern of U.S. diplomats when 300 landless workers occupied Agroreservas, a farm in Minas Gerais state in south-eastern Brazil owned by the Utah-based group Farm Management Company. Agroreservas has long been a showcase for the U.S. mission in Brazil, to demonstrate large scale technologically advanced farms in Brazil to foreign visitors.

http://wikileaks.ch/Cablegate-how-the-US-sees-the.html