Photo: Joédson Alves/Agência Brasil
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(Brasilia, 10. April 2023, Brazil in fact).– The Lula government has meanwhile reached the 100-day mark – a good reason to take stock. Brazil in fact spoke to protagonists of the most popular movements in Brazil.
defense of democracy
Vera Chaia, Professor of Politics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, praises the way the new Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, dealt with the attacks on January 8 (on that day, supporters of ex-President Bolsonaro violently stormed the seat of government, the Congress and the Supreme Court in Brasília): “Those who make a good impression right from the start was Flávio Dino. It was important for peace to return and for Brazilian politics to calm down. There have been an impressive number of arrests of Bolsonaristas. How Dino and Lula reacted in Brasília was very important,” explains Chaia.
Fernando Haddad has also done well so far, says Chaia. The new Finance Minister, who, like Lula, is from the Labor Party (Workers’ Party, PT) had presented its financial plans. “His ministry has to deal with the country’s greatest weakness, the Brazilian economy. His proposal to work with new policies goes straight to the heart of the problem.” As political scientist Mayra Goulart explains, “It is about defending an economy that prioritizes social policies and societal development.” The “fiscal cornerstones” were well targeted. Haddad and Planning Minister Tebet “are taking a strong stance, but without openly confronting the market,” Goulart said.
civil society movements
Several civil society movements praise the open dialogue with the federal authorities, which has been going on for the first time since 2016. After the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016, Michel Temer from the party Brazilian Democratic Movement assumed the office of President. Now it is again possible to present the complaints in the capital Brasilia, which have been building up for seven years. Nevertheless, the organizations also underline the need for concrete answers. Their main concerns are the property rights of indigenous territories, quilombos and other settlements. On March 21, the government granted ownership rights to three quilombos. Other settlements are still awaiting recognition, and survey and recognition procedures are also pending in relation to indigenous lands. For Iury Paulino from the protest movement against dams (Movement of People Affected by Dams) the main challenge is to “protect the government from fascist attacks while ensuring that it makes progress on the most important causes”. The most pressing thing is that she develops a position on renewing licenses for dam projects. As an example, he cites the hydroelectric power plant in Belo Monte: the construction of the dam has displaced 55,000 people from their homes and dried up 130 kilometers of the Xingu River in the Amazon. “Recognition of our territories is the main concern of our movement. Without them, we don’t even have the opportunity to talk about topics such as health, education or family policy,” says Val Eloy Terena, coordinator of the organization Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB). Dinaman Tuxá, Executive Coordinator of the APIB, explains: “The most important decision concerns the establishment of a working committee to act against illegal mining in the Yanomami area. We are also in the process of setting up crisis offices and strengthening dialogue in the most tense places.” The landless movement MST continues to push for restructuring of the National Institute for Settlement and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) and commemorates the 65,000 families currently living in shelters and camps. “For the landless, INCRA is the counterpart to the FUNAI of the indigenous peoples. INCRA investigates and classifies territories, contacts owners, negotiates and updates state registers,” explains José Damasceno of the national coordination of the MST movement.
Environment
The “zero deforestation policy” was one of Lula’s central campaign promises – a contrast to the environmental dismantling under Jair Bolsonaro. Now that he has taken office, Lula has initiated significant actions designed to preserve the environment. The previous tendency of the destruction of the Amazon and the closed, the wet savannahs in the south-east of the interior, but Lula could not stop. Experts believe that this will also take some time. However, several environmental activists said they have confidence in developments over the next few years, provided there will be tighter controls and fewer concessions on agriculture. Ane Alencar is Director of the Department of Science at the Amazon Institute for Environmental Research and Coordinator of Ecosystems Cerrado and Fogo at MapBiomas. The project has been collecting and evaluating environmental data for around 40 years. According to her, a slight decrease in deforestation can be seen in the real-time system for detecting deforestation (DETER): in the Amazon they fell from 941 km² to 710 km², in Cerrado from 1,288 km² to 1,244 km² (as of March 24). “That’s cause for celebration, especially in the case of the Amazon region. But we have to ensure this decline in the future as well. And that requires a better structured and organized government,” warns Alencar.
Meanwhile, the Observatory for Environmental Affairs of Brazil (OGAM), established in 2022, is calling on Lula’s government to better engage civilians in the National Environment Council. This is the most important forum for dialogue between the Federal Government and civil society. Under Jair Bolsonaro, the Environment Council had lost all meaning.
100 days of Lula – movements take stock by News Pool Latin America is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 international.