Ricardo Salles was the commission's rapporteur. Photo: Vinicius Loures/Câmara dos Deputados.
By Brasil de Fato – Sep 29, 2023
The movement was facing attacks from the MVPs of Bolsonarism and the agribusiness sector, but it has emerged victorious
On Wednesday September 27, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (also known as CPI) that investigated the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) came to a close and confirmed the total flop of the pro-Bolsonaro far-right in the Chamber of Deputies, particularly the participation of the federal deputy Ricardo Salles (Liberal Party), the commission’s rapporteur.
Salles was the minister of the environment in the Bolsonaro government. For many analysts, Salles seems to have used the CPI as an extension of his work in the ministry. Throughout the 130 days of the CPI, the commission presented data from when Salles was a minister and insisted on criminalizing the MST. Salles has long had an antagonistic attitude towards the movement.
This commission – the fifth CPI on the MST – became the key focus of Bolsonarism for the first year of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third term as president. The heavy hitters of the far-right in parliament were part of the commission with Luciano Lorenzini Zucco of the Republican Party serving as president of the CPI and Salles as the rapporteur. The members included Zé Trovão, Colonel Chrisóstomo, Police Chief Éder Mauro, and Caroline de Toni of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party and Evair de Mello of the Progressive Party.
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Following the conclusion of the CPI, the MST released a statement which criticized the proceedings, “The CPI did not bring forward the real problems in the countryside, on the contrary, it was another political platform for the right-wing supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to advance in the historic process of criminalizing the struggle in defense of Agrarian Reform, seeking to investigate the legitimate occupations carried out by the MST throughout this year.” Futhermore, the MST added, “…the CPI omits the main agrarian problems in Brazil caused by agribusiness, such as the growing deforestation and fires, land grabbing, violence in the countryside, the over-exploitation of labor, based on the use of labor similar to slavery, destruction and contamination of natural resources through the use of pesticides.”
It was a perfect stage for Ricardo Salles to advance his main goal: make his candidacy for mayor of São Paulo feasible. The former minister is dealing with the skepticism of his own party about the possibility of his victory in the 2024 elections and the intentions of the former president to get closer to São Paulo’s current mayor, Ricardo Nunes (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party).
In sum, his plan backfired. “Of course Salles tried to use the CPI on the MST to boost his candidacy by being on media more frequently and making his name known, attracting politicians and business people. But it didn’t work, not just because his candidacy made no progress, but also because the CPI was obfuscated,” said Camila Rocha, a political scientist and researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap).
For political scientist Rudá Ricci, Salles’ candidacy may have fallen by the wayside, due to the general public’s lack of interest in the commission. “Every CPI is a stage. It turns out that with the failure of the far-right, the CPI was confined as a topic of the progressive bubble. Even the mainstream press stopped mentioning it as a hot topic, except to reveal the fragility of the big landowners caucus and extremist politicians”.
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The low adherence to the CPI is also seen in the commission’s final result. “They failed to criminalize the MST in public opinion. They end up speaking to the converted. If anything, they only accentuated the perception that these people already have. I would only highlight Kim Kataguiri’s actions, which perhaps managed to disseminate to more people these ideas. Still, overall, they just reinforced an idea their audience already has.”
“Bolsonarism was scorched,” says Ricci. “No one expected such a success from the MST, which has lost a lot of space in recent years due to the Bolsa Família Program having removed part of the social base of the occupations. The MST reemerges on the political scene as a great collective producer, which defends agroecology and maintains a left-wing and popular ideology. It changed its profile and adapted to the new century, in addition to adapting to ‘Lulism’ [those who support President Lula]. It couldn’t be better for the movement.”
The MST’s statement concluded by saying, “Having overcome yet another attempt at criminalization, we will continue to fight. This CPI has never intimidated the historic struggle for Agrarian Reform, for which we will march until the land is a good for everyone in Brazil. We will not back down from the task of feeding the Brazilian people with dignity and social justice.
