Installed last Wednesday (17), the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) that will investigate the Landless Workers Movement (MST) starts its work this Tuesday (23), with the expectation that in the first meeting they will be approved some of the 37 requests for summoning deponents.
The opposition, which seems to have abandoned its interest in the CPMI on January 8, is showing signs that it will concentrate its forces on the MST’s CPI, to try to overshadow any positive government agenda or broad debates about the country’s directions.
Among the 27 members of the commission, 20 are part of the opposition bloc to the federal government, a margin that will allow the right to maneuver the direction of the CPI and its narratives.
All positions of power are occupied by federal opposition deputies: the president will be Lieutenant Colonel Zucco (Republicanos-RS); Kim Kataguiri (UB-SP) is the 1st vice president; the 2nd vice-president is Delegate Fábio Costa (PP-AL); the 3rd vice-president is Evair Vieira de Mello (PP-ES); and Ricado Salles (PL-SP) was the rapporteur.
The seven government members who make up the CPI of the MST are: Daiana Santos (PcdoB-RS), Max Lemos (PDT-RJ), Nilto Tatto (PT-SP), Padre João (PT-MG), Paulão (PT-AL), Valmir Assunção (PT-BA) and Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL-SP).
In all, the CPI will have 54 members, including holders and alternates, 40 of which are rural deputies, linked to the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA), the agribusiness caucus, and 14 government supporters – see the complete list here.
In the first session, parliamentarians will discuss and vote on calling deponents to the CPI. Among the names sent by the opposition are João Pedro Stédile, leader of the MST; Flávio Dino (PSB), Carlos Fávaro (PSD) and Paulo Teixeira (PT), ministers of Justice, Agriculture and Agrarian Development, respectively; in addition to the surprising request by federal deputy Alfredo Gaspar (UB-AL) who asks for the subpoena of Ricardo Lewandowski, former minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
CPI’s government supporters took action and filed 10 calls for meetings. Among them, Nabhan Garcia, former national secretary for Land Affairs in the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
See the complete list of requests for summons:
Governors:
Luana Carvalho, from the National Directorate of the MST
Siderlei de Oliveira, member of the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT)
José Maria Bortoli, partner of the soy company Bom Futuro
Renato Eugenio de Rezende Barbosa, from the sugar cane company Campanário S/A
Nabhan Garcia, former national secretary for Land Affairs
Ela Wiecko, researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Brasilia
Deborah Duprat, specialist at the Federal Public Ministry
Carlos Frederico Marés, PhD in Law from the Federal University of Paraná
Raquel Rigotto, specialist
José Geraldo de Souza Junior, graduated in Legal and Social Sciences
Opposition:
João Pedro Stédile, leader of the MST
José Rainha, leader of the National Front for Rural and City Struggle (FNL) and one of the founders of the MST
Flávio Dino, Minister of Justice
Carlos Fávaro, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock
Paulo Teixeira, Minister of Agrarian Development
Cesar Fernando Schiavon Aldrighi, president of INCRA
Claudia Maria Dadico, director of the Department of Mediation and Conciliation of Agrarian Conflicts at the Ministry of Agrarian Development
Raul Jungmann, Minister of Agrarian Development in the second term of Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Miguel Soldatelli Rossetto, Minister of Agrarian Development in the first Lula government
Ricardo Lewandowski, former minister of the STF
Ivan Xavier, member of the MST
Nelcilene Ramos, former member of the MST
Marcos Antonio ‘Marrom’ da Silva; coordinator of the National Fight Front (FNL)
Kelli Cristine de Oliveira Mafort, National Secretary of Social Dialogues and Articulation of Public Policies – SNDS/SG/PR and former national coordinator of the MST
Claudio Ribeiro Passos, leader of the FNL
Luciano de Lima, leader of the FNL
João Paulo Rodrigues, leader of the MST
CPI history
Heralded as a possibility by Bolsonarists since the beginning of the year, the MST CPI became a reality in April, a period in which the now traditional day of struggle of the landless takes place in memory of the Massacre of Eldorado do Carajás, when the movement occupies unproductive areas with no social function in different regions of the country.
Among the government supporters, the expectation is that the CPI will be transformed into a circus, with inflammatory speeches for social networks and the attempt to impose narratives. The start was given by the committee’s rapporteur, Ricardo Salles, who said this Tuesday, upon arrival at the National Congress, that he intends to “establish the idea that there is a law in Brazil that protects private property.”
Since the news of the commission’s installation came out, lawyers from different parts of the country have started to offer help to the movement. Among them, the Prerogativas Group, of which Marco Aurélio Carvalho is a member, who spoke to the Brazil in fact on the line of defense of the movement in the CPI, which contradicts the rapporteur’s thesis.
“The idea is to use the opportunity to show the country and the world what the constitutional text already brings in its vernacular, which is the social function of property. We will also show the role of the MST in fighting hunger in Brazil, since 33 million of its inhabitants have once again suffered from hunger. It is possible that small farmers in that country will once again feed the population”, explained Carvalho.
On May 2, the Association Judges and Judges for Democracy (AJD) released a note condemning the creation of the CPI. According to the movement, the commission has “dubious constitutionality”, as it was established “without a determined fact and with the undue purpose of ‘investigating’ a legal entity governed by private law”.
The initiative would be, according to the ABJD, “another step in the process carried out by the neoliberal right of persecution, discredit and demonization of social movements”, says the note from the jurists, for whom the CPI takes place “as a stage for political disputes over themes such as the struggle for land and territory and the strategy of criminalizing the leaders of movements that organize rural workers, seen as enemies”.
For João Pedro Stédile, the CPI was created to try to destabilize the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). “They want to frame the government. (The CPI is) much more, from the point of view of the political struggle, against the government than against us. It’s like saying to the government: ‘do not advance in agrarian reform, do not present an agrarian reform plan , don’t help the MST'”, he added.
In a note released last Monday (22), the MST also criticized the installation of the commission. “Wanting to criminalize our fight through a CPI is a strategy to omit the real ills of the Brazilian countryside: increasing deforestation, land grabbing, fires, violence in the countryside, use of labor analogous to slavery, destruction and contamination of natural assets by use of pesticides.”
Read more: ‘We will overcome yet another attempt to criminalize our struggle’, says MST after installation of CPI
suspects
Elected president of the CPI of the MST, deputy Lieutenant Colonel Zucco became the target of investigation by the Federal Police, authorized by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), last Wednesday (18), on suspicion of having encouraged anti-democratic acts last year, after Lula’s victory over Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections.
According to Minister Alexande de Moraes, Zucco “would be perpetrating crimes by sponsoring and encouraging anti-democratic acts, whether in Rio Grande do Sul or in the city of Brasília”.
Zucco, who presents himself as a personal friend of the Bolsonarist clan, was investigated in 2022 for supporting the closure of highways in Rio Grande do Sul after the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro at the polls.
Anti-MST and former Minister of the Environment in the Bolsonaro government, Salles must be one of the provocateurs of the CPI. At the first meeting, for the organization and formation of the commission, Sâmia Bomfim clashed with the Bolsonarist.
:: Salles says that “unfortunately” he was unable to “pass the cattle” ::
The PSOL deputy recalled that the rapporteur is investigated by the Justice of Pará on suspicion of corruption and illegal export of wood when he held the position of Minister of the Environment.
“He has an ideological, political and economic interest, because deputy Ricardo Salles’ sponsors want him to account for the money that brought him here”, stated Sâmia Bomfim.
The commission
The CPI has an expected duration of 120 days, with possible extension for another two months. In the first meeting, the formation of the commission and the election of the president, vices and rapporteur are defined.
At the second meeting, scheduled for this Tuesday, the rapporteur presents the work schedule with the administrative procedures and announces the line of investigation proposed by the CPI.
The CPI will be able to question witnesses, hear suspects, arrest (only in case of flagrante delicto during the session), request documents and information from the public authorities on topics coordinated with the commission’s activities, travel to any part of the country for investigations, request the participation of public servants in the investigation and breach of bank, tax and data secrecy.
Editing: Nicolau Soares
