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134-482: The initial reconnaissance of the Tocantins River was carried out by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and USAID in 1964. The Amazon Energy Studies Coordination Committee was formed in 1968 and begin hydroelectric project studies in 1969. Before the committee closed, Eletrobrás commissioned further studies, called the "Tocantins Studies", on the entire Tocantins River Basin. In 1973, Brazilian President Emílio Médici

268-541: A World Bank US$ 90 million loan, was addressed to individuals who had experience in farming, and a yearly income of up to US$ 15,000; they were granted a loan of up to US$ 40,000 if they could associate with other rural producers in order to buy land from a willing landholder. Thus, this programme catered primarily to substantial small farmers, not to the MST's traditional constituency—the rural poor. Cardoso's project, Cédula da Terra ("landcard"), did offer previously landless people

402-593: A human rights organization co-founded by Darci Frigo , the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award Laureate. The courts might eventually issue a warrant for eviction, requiring the occupier families to leave, or they might deny the landowner's petition, and allow the families to stay provisionally, and engage in subsistence farming until the federal agency responsible for agrarian reform, Brazil's National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), determines whether occupied property had indeed been unproductive. The MST's legal activity bases itself on

536-652: A hydroelectric dam. This first group was later joined by an additional 300 (or, according to other sources, over 1,000) households evicted by FUNAI from the Kaingang Indian reservation in Nonoai, where they had been renting plots since 1968. Local mobilization of the Passo Real and Nonoai people had already achieved some land distribution on non-Indian land, followed by demobilization. Those who had not received land under these claims, joined by others, and led by leaders from

670-582: A National Encounter of landless workers in Cascavel , Paraná, as Brazil's military dictatorship drew to a close. Its founding was strongly connected to Catholic-based organizations, such as the Pastoral Land Commission , which provided support and infrastructure. During much of the 1980s, the MST faced political competition from the National Confederacy of Agrarian Workers' (CONTAG), heir to

804-532: A bill presented to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006 by Congressman Abelardo Lupion ( Democrats - Paraná), proposed making "invading others' property with the end of pressuring the government" a terrorist action, and therefore, a heinous crime. A "heinous" crime in Brazilian law is a felony, designated as such in a 1990 Brazilian law, and those accused of committing them are ineligible for pretrial release . In April 2006,

938-465: A budget of over $ 50 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all U.S. foreign assistance—the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms. Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U.S. foreign assistance programs and mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic aid. USAID

1072-487: A buffer of conservative small farmers between latifundia owners and the rural proletariat. In 1969, at the most repressive point of the dictatorship, the 1967 constitution was amended via a decree ( ato institucional ) by a junta that held interim power during the final illness of president Arthur da Costa e Silva , and authorized government compensation for property expropriated for land reform. This compensation would be made in government bonds rather than cash, previously

1206-483: A capacity of 45 cubic kilometres (36,000,000 acre⋅ft) with a live volume of 32 cubic kilometres (26,000,000 acre⋅ft). The 405 by 58 metres (1,329 ft × 190 ft) Phase I power house is concrete and is fitted with an intake and penstocks . Phase I's power house contains 12 x 350 MW (470,000 hp) Francis turbine generators . An auxiliary water intake and auxiliary powerhouse also houses 2 x 22.5 MW (30,200 hp) generators. The dam

1340-502: A clear stance, and so one could argue either for or against the MST without leaving the framework of the Constitution. The lack of clear government commitment to land reform precludes the MST engaging in public-interest litigation , so concrete proceedings for land reform are left to the initiative of the groups concerned, through onerous and time-consuming legal proceedings. Given "the highly problematic and ideologically driven nature of

1474-490: A highly dynamic and robust agricultural business sector at the price of extensive dislocation of the rural poor. MST questioned the scope of the benefits from the alleged efficiency of the change, given that since 1850, Brazilian land development had been concerned with the interests of a single class — the rural bourgeoisie. While the MST frames its policies in socio-economic terms, it still points to Canudos and its alleged millenarism to legitimize its existence, and to develop

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1608-419: A large scale is provided through USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance . Rather than having a permanent presence in country missions, this office has supplies pre-positioned in strategic locations to respond quickly to disasters when and where they occur. Landless Workers%27 Movement The Landless Workers' Movement ( Portuguese : Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra , MST )

1742-727: A mere 3% of the population owns two-thirds of all arable land in Brazil. In 1991, MST received the Right Livelihood Award "for winning land for landless families, and helping them to farm it sustainably." Land reform has a long history in Brazil, and the concept predates the MST. In the mid-20th century, Brazilian leftists reached a consensus that the democratization and widespread actual exercise of political rights would require land reform. Brazilian political elites actively opposed land reform initiatives, which they felt threatened their social and political status. Political leaders of

1876-642: A move publicly condemned by Lula , then-leader of the leftist opposition, and other prominent members of the PT. The farm was damaged and looted in the occupation, and a combine harvester , tractor, and several pieces of furniture were destroyed. MST members also drank all the alcohol at the farm. Later, 16 MST leaders were charged with theft, vandalism, trespassing, kidnapping, and resisting arrest. In 2005, two undercover police officers investigating cargo truck robberies near an MST homestead in Pernambuco were attacked. One

2010-438: A new way of life." The shift had been developing since the movement's 2000 national congress, which focused mainly on the perceived threat of transnational corporations, whether Brazilian or foreign, to both small property in general, and to Brazilian national food sovereignty , especially in the area of intellectual property . In July 2000, this principle was the impetus for MST to mobilize and lead farmers in an attack against

2144-510: A number of countries that had achieved a substantial level of prosperity, including South Korea, Turkey, and Costa Rica . USAID also closes missions when requested by host countries for political reasons. In September 2012, the U.S. closed USAID/Russia at that country's request. Its mission in Moscow had been in operation for two decades. On May 1, 2013, the president of Bolivia , Evo Morales , asked USAID to close its mission, which had worked in

2278-450: A plethora of concerns, the chief concern of activists in this case was the displacement of individuals as a result of the dam's construction and operation. The Tucuruí Dam has displaced 32,000 people, completely wiping out some communities. The dam's most infamous protester, Dilma Ferreira Silva, was brutally assassinated on March 22, 2019. Her husband and a friend died alongside her. Silva was a staunch protester of tropical damming, working as

2412-464: A powerful mystique of its own. A great deal of the early organizing in the MST came from Catholic communities. Much of MST ideology and practice come from a social doctrine of the Catholic Church : that private property should serve a social function. This principle developed during the 19th century, and became Catholic doctrine with Pope Leo XIII 's Rerum novarum encyclical, promulgated on

2546-579: A ranch in Piratininga, São Paulo as a protest to the destruction of lands as a result of the Tucuruí Dam's construction. Through a process referred to as grilagem (translates to land-grabbing from Portuguese), which could be compared to a more violent form of gaining squatters rights in other countries, the protesters were able to occupy the land. The term ecosystem services refers to he varied benefits an ecological region provides humanity. The construction of

2680-506: A regional coordinator for the Movement of Dam-Affected Peoples, and spent much of her time exposing the fact that while hydroelectric power is lauded as a sustainable energy source, the Tucuruí Dam's location meant it was not environmentally friendly. Prior to the Dam's construction, farming and mining, supported by the lands which came to be flooded by the Dam, was the main way of life for peoples like

2814-597: A relationship between the MST and various terrorist groups. The MST is regarded as a source of "civil unrest." In late 2005, a parliamentary inquiry commission, where landowner-friendly congressmen held a majority, classified the MST's activities as terrorism, and the MST itself as a criminal organization. However, its report met no support from the PT members of the commission, and a senator ripped it up before TV cameras, saying that those who voted for it were "accomplices of murder, people who use slave labor, [and] who embezzle land illegally." Nevertheless, based on this report,

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2948-561: A result. The Tocantins watershed was, historically, an important access point for freshwater amongst the humans and animals living in the region. As a result of construction, however, the water quality of the Tocantins River Basin has been jeopardized due to discharge of industrial effluents, residues of agricultural uses, and untreated sewage disposal. The main portion Tucuruí Dam is a 78-metre-high (256 ft) and 6.9-kilometre-long (4.3 mi) concrete-gravity dam. The addition of

3082-454: A second wave of occupations starting in 2003. However, the Lula government's increasingly conservative positions, including its low profile on land reform, (actually somewhat less than achieved by Cardoso in his first term ) impelled the movement to change its stance as early as early 2004, when it again began to occupy public buildings and Banco do Brasil agencies. In June 2003, the MST occupied

3216-482: A self-sustainable way of life for the rural poor. The MST differs from previous land reform movements in its single-issue focus; land reform for them is a self-justifying cause. The organization maintains that it is legally justified in occupying unproductive land, pointing to the most recent Constitution of Brazil (1988), which contains a passage saying that land must fulfill a social function (Article 5, XXIII). The MST also notes, based on 1996 census statistics, that

3350-500: A series of street demonstration organized by the Movement of Dam Affected People, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra , and Via Campesina resulted in protesters occupying the Tucuruí plant for two days. The occupation resulted in a small win for protesters, as government officials agreed to meet with representatives if the Movement of Dam Affected People to end the protest. In 2007 Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra occupied

3484-447: A ship loaded with GM maize from Argentina that was docked in Recife . Since 2000, much of the movement's activism consisted in symbolic acts in opposition of multinational corporations, as "a symbol of the intervention politics of the big monopolies operating in Brazil." A possible reason contributing to the change in strategy might have been the perceived shift in government stances in

3618-485: A specialized "Agriculture" office), development of microfinance industries, streamlining of Customs administrations (to accelerate the growth of exporting industries), and modernization of government regulatory frameworks for the industry in various sectors (telecommunications, agriculture, and so forth). In USAID's early years and some larger programs, Economic Growth offices have financed economic infrastructure like roads and electrical power plants. Economic Growth assistance

3752-538: A struggle for land reform, but a wider struggle against the capitalist system. Therefore, Cardoso's administration tried to initiate tamer social movements for land reform on purely negotiated terms, such as the Movement of Landless Producers ( Movimento dos Agricultores Sem Terra , or MAST), organized on a local basis in the São Paulo State , around the trade union central Syndical Social Democracy (SDS). By contrast, MST leaders emphasized that their practical activity

3886-470: A sustainable basis for USAID's socioeconomic development objective in the long term. USAID (United States Agency for International Development) has recently initiated the HEARTH (Health, Ecosystems and Agriculture for Resilient, Thriving Societies) program, which operates in 10 countries with 15 activities aimed at promoting conservation of threatened landscapes and enhancing community well-being by partnering with

4020-564: Is a social movement in Brazil aimed at land reform . Inspired by Marxism , it is the largest such movement in Latin America , with an estimated informal membership of 1.5 million across 23 of Brazil's 26 states. MST defines its goals as access to the land for poor workers through land reform in Brazil, and activism around social issues that make land ownership more difficult to achieve, such as unequal income distribution , racism , sexism , and media monopolies. MST strives to achieve

4154-549: Is contracted or procured by USAID and provided in-kind to recipients. For technical advisory services, USAID draws on experts from the private sector, mainly from the assisted country's own pool of expertise, as well as from specialized U.S. government agencies. Many host-government leaders have drawn on USAID's technical assistance for the development of IT systems and computer hardware procurement to strengthen their institutions. To build indigenous expertise and leadership, USAID finances scholarships to U.S. universities and assists in

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4288-437: Is designed to support two 210 by 33 metres (689 ft × 108 ft) wide navigation locks. The Tucuruí Dam brought power to 13 million people and 60% of the power is transferred to industries which create just under 2,000 jobs. Between 25,000 and 35,000 people were removed from the future reservoir zone in the early 1980s. 14,000 people were relocated by the government. 3,750 of these people moved to new islands created by

4422-696: Is headed by an administrator . The current administrator, Samantha Power, was sworn in on May 3, 2021. Under the Biden administration, the administrator became a regular attendee of the National Security Council. USAID/Washington helps define overall federal civilian foreign assistance policy and budgets, working with the State Department, Congress, and other U.S. government agencies. It is organized into "Bureaus" covering geographical areas, development subject areas, and administrative functions. Each bureau

4556-447: Is headed by an assistant administrator appointed by the president. (Some tasks similar to those of USAID's Bureaus are performed by what are termed "Independent Offices".) Independent oversight of USAID activities is provided by its Office of Inspector General, U.S. Agency for International Development , which conducts criminal and civil investigations, financial and performance audits, reviews, and inspections of USAID activities around

4690-438: Is instructed: "To the maximum extent feasible, [to] provide [ESF] assistance ... consistent with the policy directions, purposes, and programs of [development assistance]." Also, when U.S. troops are in the field, USAID can supplement the " Civil Affairs " programs that the U.S. military conducts to win the friendship of local populations. In these circumstances, USAID may be directed by specially appointed diplomatic officials of

4824-774: Is now provided in the form of non-reimbursable grants. In recent years, the United States has increased its emphasis on financial rather than technical assistance. In 2004, the Bush Administration created the Millennium Challenge Corporation as a new foreign aid agency that is mainly restricted to providing financial assistance. In 2009, the Obama administration initiated a major realignment of USAID's own programs to emphasize financial assistance, referring to it as "government-to-government" or "G2G" assistance. USAID

4958-460: Is organized around country development programs managed by resident USAID offices in developing countries ("USAID missions"), supported by USAID's global headquarters in Washington, DC. USAID plans its work in each country around an individual country development program managed by a resident office called a "mission". The USAID mission and its U.S. staff are guests in the country, with a status that

5092-500: Is required. ) In 2008, USAID launched the "Development Leadership Initiative" to reverse the decline in USAID's Foreign service officer staffing, which had fallen to a total of about 1,200 worldwide. Although USAID's goal was to double the number of Foreign service officers to about 2,400 in 2012, actual recruitment net of attrition reached only 820 by the end of 2012. USAID's 2016 total of 1,850 Foreign service officers compared with 13,000 in

5226-439: Is the lead federal coordinator for international disaster assistance. After 1945, many newly independent countries needed assistance to relieve the chronic deprivation afflicting their low-income populations. USAID and its predecessor agencies have continuously provided poverty relief in many forms, including assistance to public health and education services targeted at the poorest. USAID has also helped manage food aid provided by

5360-527: Is thus quite diverse in terms of the range of sectors where it may work. It corresponds to USAID's socioeconomic development objective and is the source of sustainable poverty reduction. Economic Growth offices also occasionally manage assistance to poverty relief projects, such as to government programs that provide "cash transfer" payments to low-income families. Some USAID missions have specialized technical offices for areas like counter-narcotics assistance or assistance in conflict zones. Disaster assistance on

5494-989: Is usually defined by a "framework bilateral agreement" between the government of the United States and the host government. Framework bilaterals give the mission and its U.S. staff privileges similar to (but not necessarily the same as) those accorded to the U.S. embassy and diplomats by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. USAID missions work in over fifty countries, consulting with their governments and non-governmental organizations to identify programs that will receive USAID's assistance. As part of this process, USAID missions conduct socio-economic analysis, discuss projects with host-country leaders, design assistance to those projects, award contracts and grants, administer assistance (including evaluation and reporting), and manage flows of funds. As countries develop and need less assistance, USAID shrinks and ultimately closes its resident missions. USAID has closed missions in

Tucuruí Dam - Misplaced Pages Continue

5628-510: The Araguaia guerrillas . Curió enforced the blockade ruthlessly; most of the landless refused his offer of resettlement on the Amazonian frontier, and eventually pressured the military government into expropriating nearby lands for agrarian reform. The Encruzilhada Natalino episode set a pattern. Most of subsequent early development of the MST concerned exactly the areas of southern Brazil where, in

5762-530: The Canudos War in the 1890s, and the Contestado War in the 1910s) idealized older forms of property, and revitalized ideologies centered on a fabled millenarian return to an earlier, pre-bourgeois social order. Advocated by groups led by rogue messianic religious leaders outside the established Catholic hierarchy, these ideologies seemed heretical and revolutionary. Some leftist historians, following

5896-622: The Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency . USAID's special ability to administer programs in low-income countries supports these and other U.S. government agencies' international work on global concerns. Among these global interests, environmental issues attract high attention. USAID assists projects that conserve and protect threatened land, water, forests, and wildlife. USAID also assists projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to build resilience to

6030-648: The Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT). MST eventually all but monopolized political attention as a spokesman for rural workers. From the 1980s on, the MST has not maintained a monopoly of land occupations, many of which are carried out by a host of grassroots organizations (dissidents from the MST, trade unions, informal coalitions of land workers). However, the MST is by far the most organized group dealing in occupations, and has enough political leverage to turn occupations into formal expropriations for public purposes. In 1995, only 89 of 198 occupations (45%) were organized by

6164-618: The Commission for Relief in Belgium headed by Herbert Hoover prevented starvation in Belgium after the German invasion. After 1945, the European Recovery Program championed by Secretary of State George Marshall (the " Marshall Plan ") helped rebuild war-torn Western Europe. USAID manages relief efforts after wars and natural disasters through its Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which

6298-647: The R&;D farm of the Monsanto Company in the state of Goiás . On March 7, 2008, a similar action by women activists at another Monsanto facility in Santa Cruz das Palmeiras , São Paulo , destroyed a nursery and an experimental patch of genetically modified maize , slowing ongoing scientific research. MST said they destroyed the facility to protest government support for the extensive use of GMOs supplied by transnational corporations in agriculture. In 2003, Lula authorized

6432-475: The U.S. Department of Agriculture . Also, USAID provides funding to NGOs to supplement private donations in relieving chronic poverty. Technical cooperation between nations is essential for addressing a range of cross-border concerns like communicable diseases, environmental issues, trade and investment cooperation, safety standards for traded products, money laundering, and so forth. The United States has specialized federal agencies dealing with such areas, such as

6566-427: The peasant leagues ( Ligas Camponesas ) in northeastern Brazil, which opposed the evictions of tenant farmers land, and the transformation of plantations into cattle ranches . These groups questioned the existing distribution of land ownership through a rational appeal to the social function of property. Despite the efforts of these groups, land ownership continued to concentrate, and Brazil to this day has had

6700-405: The peasant leagues following the 1964 coup opened the way for commercialized agriculture and concentration of land ownership throughout the period of the military dictatorship , and an absolute decline in the rural population during the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, out of 370 million hectares of total farm land, 285 million hectares (77%) were held by latifundia . The re-democratization process in

6834-474: The $ 1.35 billion Phase II began in June 1998. This phase called for the construction of the new power house for 11 x 375 MW (503,000 hp) Francis turbines and the completion of the navigation lock-system. The new power house is located to the left of the old one and the locks are on the north side of the dam's abutments. Phase II was expected to be completed in 2006 but is behind schedule. The second power house

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6968-537: The 1980s, however, allowed grassroots movements to pursue their own interests, rather than those of the state and the ruling classes. The emergence of the MST fits into this framework. Between late 1980 and early 1981, over 6,000 landless families established an encampment on land located between three unproductive estates in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul . These families included 600 households expropriated and dislocated in 1974 from nearby Passo Real  [ pt ] to make way for construction of

7102-829: The 4,935 local staff of USAID's field missions. Host-country staff normally work under one-year contracts that are renewed annually. Formerly, host-country staff could be recruited as "direct hires" in career positions and at present many host-country staff continue working with USAID missions for full careers on a series of one-year contracts. In USAID's management approach, local staff may fill highly responsible, professional roles in program design and management. U.S. citizens can apply to become USAID Foreign service officers by competing for specific job openings based on academic qualifications and experience in development programs. Within five years of recruitment, most Foreign service officers receive tenure for an additional 20+ years of employment before mandatory retirement. Some are promoted to

7236-532: The Amazon region. The overall large influx of people to the area has led to deforestation and negative impacts from increased cattle-raising. The increases of population have also strained existing infrastructure or lack thereof. USAID The United States Agency for International Development ( USAID ) is an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance . With

7370-510: The Brazilian Catholic hierarchy formally acknowledged the principle in 1980. In Brazilian constitutional history, land reform — understood in terms of public management of natural resources — was first explicitly mentioned as a guiding principle of government in the 1967 constitution , which sought to institutionalize an authoritarian consensus after the 1964 coup. The military dictatorship intended to use land reform policy to develop

7504-409: The Brazilian justice system," all parties have an incentive to resort to more informal methods: "while the large landowners try to evacuate squatters from their land, squatters might use violence to force institutional intervention favoring them with the land expropriation afterwards [...] violence is mandatory for both sides to achieve their goals." These tactics raise controversy about the legality of

7638-475: The Lula government to allow Syngenta to continue GMO research), the premises were transferred to the Paraná state government, and converted into an agroecology research center. After an exchange of barbs between Lula and Stedile over what Lula saw as an unnecessary radicalization of the movement's demands, the MST decided to call a huge national demonstration. In May 2005, after a two-week, 200-odd kilometer march from

7772-493: The MST as terrorists, his Minister of Agricultural Development did, and even hypothesized that the MST invaded Argentina from the north in order to blackmail the Brazilian government into action. In July 1997, Senior General Alberto Cardoso, Cardoso's Chief of Military Household ( Chefe da Casa Militar , among other things, a general comptroller over all issues regarding the military and police forces as armed civil servants), expressed concern about participation of MST activists in

7906-416: The MST declared the farm to be government property that was illegally embezzled by Cutrale, and that the occupation was intended to protest this, while the destruction was done by provocateurs. Such questioning of the legality of existing private property by denouncing landowners as holding land in adverse possession was one of the movement's main political tools. The Cutrale plantation, Fazenda S. Henrique,

8040-554: The MST took over the farm of Suzano Papel e Celulose , a large maker of paper products, in the state of Bahia , because it had more than six square kilometres devoted to eucalyptus growth. Eucalyptus, a non-native plant, has been blamed for environmental degradation in northeastern Brazil, as well as reducing the availability of land for small agricultural production, called by some as "cornering" producers ( encurralados pelo eucalipto ). In 2011, Veja described such activities as plain theft of eucalyptus wood, quoting an estimate from

8174-474: The MST was concerned, the greatest gain it received from the Lula government was the non-criminalization of the movement itself; the tough, anti-occupation measures taken by the Cardoso government were left in abeyance, and not enforced. Attempts to officially define the MST as a "terrorist organization" were also opposed by Workers' Party congresspersons. Nevertheless, the Lula government never acted in tandem with

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8308-561: The MST with reserve: in February 2009, for instance, the then-president of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), Gilmar Mendes , declared the MST engaged in "illicit" activities, opposed granting it public monies, and supported an "adequate" judicial response towards land occupation. The MST leadership has, in turn on various occasions, charged that the STF as a whole is consistently hostile to

8442-536: The MST's actions as felonies. In May 2005, Veja accused the MST of helping the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the most powerful prison-gang criminal organization in São Paulo . A police phone tap recording of a conversation between PCC leaders mentioned the MST; one of them said he had "just talked with the leaders of the MST," who would "give instructions" to the gang about the best ways to stage what became

8576-463: The MST's actions, since it tries to ensure social justice unilaterally. The MST identifies rural land it believes to be unproductive and that does not meet its social function, then occupies the land, only afterwards moving to ascertain the legality of the occupation. The MST is represented in these activities by public interest legal counsel, including their own lawyers, sons and daughters of MST families, and organizations, such as Terra de Direitos ,

8710-459: The MST, according to a general pattern of keeping organized social movements outside the fostering of the government's agenda. However, as stated by a German author, the Lula government year after year proposed a blueprint for land reform that was regularly blocked by regional agrarian elites. Lula's election to the presidency raised the possibility of active government support for land reform, so conservative media increased their efforts to brand

8844-424: The MST, as far as class politics is concerned, is mostly a semi proletarian movement, consisting of congregations of people trying to eke out a living in the absence of formal wage employment, out of a range of activities across a whole section of the social divisions of labour. MST somewhat filled the void left by the decline of the organized labor movement in the wake of Cardoso's neoliberal policies. Therefore,

8978-424: The MST, but these included 20,500 (65%) out of the grand total of 31,400 families involved. Brazil has long history of violent land conflict. During the 1990s, the MST emerged as the most prominent land reform movement in Brazil, and in 1995–1999, led a first wave of occupations which resulted in violence. The MST, landowners, and the government accused each other of the killings, maimings, and property damage. In

9112-453: The Mojú and Caraipé earth-fill dikes increases the total length to 12,515 metres (41,060 ft). The main dam's Creager-type service spillway is the second largest in the world with a maximum capacity of 110,000 cubic metres per second (3,900,000 cu ft/s). It is controlled by 20 floodgates measuring 20 by 21 metres (66 ft × 69 ft). The reservoir impounded by the dam has

9246-502: The Parakan, Asurini and ParkatÍjÍ. Before construction of the dam began a study was conducted to analyze the impact the project would have on local communities in which it was determined that 900 tons of the 1,500 tons of fish that these communities relied upon for survival would no longer be accessible. Without agency in Brazilian society, these tribes were reliant upon others to advocate for their needs. This, of course, did not occur. In 2007

9380-603: The Senior Foreign Service with extended tenure, subject to the Foreign Service's mandatory retirement age of 65. (This recruitment system differs from the State Department's use of the "Foreign Service Officer Test" to identify potential U.S. diplomats. Individuals who pass the test become candidates for the State Department's selection process, which emphasizes personal qualities in thirteen dimensions such as "Composure" and "Resourcefulness". No specific education level

9514-651: The State Department, as has been done in Afghanistan and Pakistan during operations against al-Qaeda. U.S. commercial interests are served by U.S. law's requirement that most goods and services financed by USAID must be sourced from U.S. vendors. To help low-income nations achieve self-sustaining socioeconomic development, USAID assists them in improving the management of their own resources. USAID's assistance for socioeconomic development mainly provides technical advice, training, scholarships, commodities, and financial assistance. Through grants and contracts, USAID mobilizes

9648-431: The State Department. While USAID can have as little presence in a country as a single person assigned to the U.S. Embassy, a full USAID mission in a larger country may have twenty or more USAID Foreign service officers and a hundred or more professional and administrative employees from the country itself. The USAID mission's staff is divided into specialized offices in three groups: (1) assistance management offices; (2)

9782-446: The Tucuruí Dam either jeopardized or destroyed a plethora of the ecosystem services the region provided before the hydroelectric dam's construction. Cultural/heritage services are those that contribute to the success of a particular community's culture and way of life. Prior to the dam's construction, multiple indigenous groups' identity was tied to the Tocantins River area in the Brazilian state of Pará which would come to be destroyed by

9916-771: The U.S., while assistance to the country's universities and professional education institutions may be provided by Economic Growth and Health offices. The Education office's emphasis on school access for the poor majority of the population corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as to the socioeconomic development objective in the long term. Examples of projects assisted by environmental offices are projects for tropical forest conservation, protection of indigenous people's lands, regulation of marine fishing industries, pollution control, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and helping communities adapt to climate change. Environment assistance corresponds to USAID's objective of technical cooperation on global issues, as well as laying

10050-488: The absence of an open frontier, an ideological appeal at an alternate foundation for access to the land—other than formal private property—was developed in response to the growing difficulties agribusiness posed for family farming. The MST also developed what became its chief modus operandi : local organizing around the concrete struggles of a specific demographic group. The MST was officially founded in January 1984, during

10184-767: The activists' right to vote be withdrawn by striking them from the voter registry. Declarations issued at the same time by the State Association of Military Policy Commissioned Officers, in an open Red Scare vein, declared the MST "an organized movement, striving at instituting a totalitarian state in our country." Between September 27 and October 7, 2009, the MST occupied an orange plantation in Borebi , State of São Paulo, owned by orange juice multinational Cutrale . The corporation claimed to have lost R$ 1.2 million (roughly US$ 603,000) in damaged equipment, missing pesticide, destroyed crops, and trees cut by MST activists. In response,

10318-493: The basis for socio-economic development. USAID's Education offices mainly assist the national school system, emphasizing broadening the coverage of quality basic education to reach the entire population. Examples of projects often assisted by Education offices are projects for curriculum development, teacher training, and provision of improved textbooks and materials. Larger programs have included school construction. Education offices often manage scholarship programs for training in

10452-475: The bid to construct the dam. Construction on Phase I began on November 24, 1975. Phase I called for the construction of the main dam, its dikes, the power house, spillway and upper portion of the navigation locks. On February 1, 1977, concrete-pouring began on site and in September 1978, the river diversion began. On September 6, 1984, the reservoir began filling and 206-days later it was at normal pool. Construction

10586-442: The city of Goiânia , nearly 13,000 landless workers arrived in their nation's capital, Brasilia . The MST march targeted the U.S. embassy and Brazilian Finance Ministry, rather than President Lula. While thousands of landless carried banners and scythes through the streets, a delegation of 50 held a three-hour meeting with Lula, who donned an MST cap for the cameras. During this session, Lula recommitted to settling 430,000 families by

10720-448: The country for 49 years. The closure was completed on September 20, 2013. USAID missions are led by mission directors and are staffed both by USAID Foreign Service officers and by development professionals from the country itself, with the host-country professionals forming the majority of the staff. The length of a Foreign service officer's "tour" in most countries is four years, to provide enough time to develop in-depth knowledge about

10854-434: The country. (Shorter tours of one or two years are usual in countries of exceptional hardship or danger.) The mission director is a member of the U.S. Embassy's "Country Team" under the direction of the U.S. ambassador. As a USAID mission works in an unclassified environment with relative frequent public interaction, most missions were initially located in independent offices in the business districts of capital cities. Since

10988-415: The dam and most of the funding was procured by Eletronorte and Brazilian institutions such as Eletrobrás, BNH, Banco do Brasil , Caixa Econômica Federal and FINAME. A smaller portion of funding came from Canadian, European and American institutions. In 1975, the consortium formed by the Brazilian companies Engevix and Themag were hired to draw up the basic and executive designs. In 1976, Camargo Correa won

11122-648: The dam. Since the dam's construction, a number of indigenous reserves, like those of the Parakanã, Pucuruí and Montanha have been flooded and the reserves of the Mãe Maria, Trocará, Krikati and Cana Brava have been cut through by transmission lines. While cultural/heritage services refers to the spaces humans inhabit, habitat services refers to animals. The river was once home to 280 species of fish, but only 178 species remain. Additionally, aquatic mammals, such as manatees, river dolphins, and amazon dolphins which once flourished in

11256-422: The early 1990s, some believe it persists in informal regional ties between landowners. UDR lobbying over the constitutional text is believed to have watered down concrete enforcement of the "social interest" principle. One Brazilian law handbook argues that land reform, as understood in the 1988 Constitution, is a concept made up of various "compromises," on which constitutional law has consistently evaded taking

11390-685: The enabling myths of the neoliberal discourse." Cardoso offered lip service to agrarian reform in general, but also described the movement as "a threat to democracy." He compared the MST's demands for subsidized credit, which led to the 1998 occupation of various banks in Paraná , to bank robbery. In a memoir written after he left office, Cardoso expressed sympathy for land reform, stating, "were I not President, I would probably be out marching with them," but also countering, "the image of mobs taking over privately-owned farms would chase away investment, both local and foreign." Although Cardoso himself never branded

11524-402: The end of 2006, and to allocating the human and financial resources to accomplish this. He also committed to a range of related reforms, including an increase in the pool of land available for redistribution [Ramos, 2005]. Later, the Lula government would claim to have resettled 381,419 families between 2002 and 2006—a claim disputed by the MST. The movement argued the numbers had been doctored by

11658-454: The eradication of communicable diseases, strengthening of public health systems focusing on maternal-child health including family planning services, HIV-AIDS monitoring, delivery of medical supplies including contraceptives and HIV vaccines, and coordination of Demographic and Health Surveys. This assistance is primarily targeted to the poor majority of the population and corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as strengthening

11792-514: The eve of the 1964 military coup ( golpe militar ). This doctrine was evoked by President João Goulart at a rally in Rio de Janeiro , at which he offered a blueprint for political and social reforms, and proposed expropriation of estates larger than 600 hectares in areas near federal facilities, such as roads, railroads, reservoirs, and sanitation works; these ideas triggered a strong conservative backlash, and led to Goulart's loss of power. Nevertheless,

11926-578: The existing regional movement, MASTER (Rio Grande do Sul landless farmers' movement), made up the 1980/1981 encampment. The location became known as the Encruzilhada Natalino. With the support of civil society, including the progressive branch of the Catholic Church , the families resisted a blockade imposed by military force. Enforcement of the blockade was entrusted by the government to Army colonel Sebastião Curió  [ pt ] , already notorious for his past counter-insurgency efforts against

12060-438: The following requirements: Since the criteria are vague and not objectively defined, the social interest principle was seen as a mixed blessing, but accepted in general. Landowners have lobbied against the principle since 1985 through the landowners' organization, União Democrática Ruralista (Democratic Union of Rural People, or UDR), whose rise and organization parallels that of the MST. Although it avowedly dissolved itself in

12194-410: The ground. MST president João Pedro Stédile commented that MST should oppose not only landowners, but also agrobusinesses that partook in "the project of organization of agriculture by transnational capital allied to capitalist farming"—a model he deemed socially backwards and environmentally harmful. In the words of an anonymous activist: "our struggle is not only to win the land ... we are building

12328-745: The guidance of the president , secretary of state , and the National Security Council . USAID has missions in over 100 countries, primarily in Africa , Asia , Latin America , the Middle East , and Eastern Europe . USAID's decentralized network of resident field missions is drawn on to manage U.S. government programs in low-income countries for a range of purposes. Some of the U.S. government's earliest foreign aid programs provided relief in crises created by war. In 1915, U.S. government assistance through

12462-637: The idea that property rights are in a continuous process of social construction, so litigation and seeking to strike sympathy among the judiciary is essential to MST's legitimacy. Traditionally, Brazilian courts side with landowners, and file charges against MST members some call "frivolous and bizarre." For instance, in a 2004 land occupation in Pernambuco , a judge issued arrest warrants for MST members, and described them as highly dangerous criminals. Nevertheless, many individual judges have shown themselves sympathetic. Brazilian higher courts have usually regarded

12596-444: The inclusion of people already living in areas (national forests and other managed areas of environmental protection, as well as other already existing settlements) where their presence had only been legally acknowledged by the government. The MST also criticised Lula's administration to call mere land redistribution by means of handing out of small plots land as "reform," when it was simply a form of welfarism ( assistencialismo ) that

12730-516: The independent Brazilian state, the default means of acquiring land was through purchase, from either the state or a previous private owner. This law strongly limited squatter's rights , and favoured the historic concentration of land ownership , which became a hallmark of modern Brazilian social history . The Lei de Terras left in place the colonial practice of favoring of large landholdings created by mammoth land grants to well-placed people, which were usually worked by enslaved people. Continuing

12864-563: The judicial sector and civil society organizations that monitor government performance. Democracy assistance received its greatest impetus at the time of the creation of the successor states to the USSR starting in about 1990, corresponding both to USAID's objective of supporting U.S. bilateral interests and to USAID's socioeconomic development objective. Examples of projects often assisted by Economic Growth offices are projects for improvements in agricultural techniques and marketing (the mission may have

12998-460: The largest protest by prisoners' relatives in Brazilian history. On April 18, 2005, some 3,000 relatives protested prevailing conditions in São Paulo's correctional facilities. The MST "leaders" were not named. No MST activist, real or alleged, took part in the taped conversations. The MST denied any link in a formal written statement, calling the supposed evidence hearsay, and an attempt to criminalize

13132-484: The late 1990s and early 2000s. The Cardoso government declared that Brazil "had no need" for land reform, that small farms were not competitive, and were unlikely to increase personal incomes in rural areas. He believed that it would be better to create skilled jobs, which would cause the land reform issue to recede into the background. Cardoso denounced the MST's actions as aiming for a return to an archaic, agrarian past, and therefore, in conflict with "modernity"—"one of

13266-402: The leaders said they still regarded Lula as an ally, but demanded that he accelerate his promised land reforms. However, in September of that year, João Pedro Stedile declared that, in terms of land reform, Lula's government was "finished." By the end of Lula's first term, it was clear that the MST had decided to act again as a separate movement, irrespective of the government's agenda. As far as

13400-598: The mission director's and the Program office; and (3) the contracting, financial management, and facilities offices. Called "technical" offices by USAID staff, these offices design and manage the technical and financial assistance that USAID provides to their local counterparts' projects. The technical offices that are frequently found in USAID missions include Health and Family Planning, Education, Environment, Democracy, and Economic Growth. Examples of projects assisted by missions' Health and Family Planning offices are projects for

13534-476: The movement took steps to ally with urban struggles, especially those connected to housing. João Pedro Stedile stated that the struggle for land reform would unfold in the countryside, but would be decided in the city, where "political power for structural change" resided. The Lula government was seen by the MST as a leftist and therefore friendly government, so MST decided to shun occupations of public buildings in favor of actions against private landed states , in

13668-444: The movement's politics, one had to keep in mind "that there are a great many lumpens in the country areas." In Stedile's view, the existence of the large underclass should not be held against the working class character of the movement, because many rural working class had been "absorbed" into the periphery of the urban proletariat. Such a view is shared by some academic authors, who argue that, behind its avowedly "peasant" character,

13802-523: The movement. In the wake of 9/11 , Brazilian media tended to describe the MST as "terrorists," lumping it together loosely with various historical and mediatic happenings in keeping with an international post-9/11 trends of relegating any political movement against existing globalization to beyond the pale, and outside the boundaries of permissible political discourse. The MST assumes its activities are continuously surveilled by military intelligence. Various intelligence organs, Brazilian and foreign, assume

13936-467: The movement. In late 2013, it described the court as "lackeying to the ruling class," and "working for years against the working class and social movements." This fraught relationship came to a head on February 12, 2014, when a court session was suspended after an attempted invasion of the court building in Brasilia by MST activists, who were met by police firing rubber bullets and tear gas. The smashing of

14070-525: The notorious Eldorado de Carajás massacre in 1996, nineteen MST members were gunned down, and another 69 were wounded by police as they blocked a state road in Pará . In 1997 alone, similar confrontations with police and landowners' security details accounted for two dozen internationally acknowledged deaths. In 2002, the MST occupied the family farm of then-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Minas Gerais ,

14204-434: The only legal practice (Art. 157, §1, as amended by Institutional Act No. 9, 1969). The Constitution passed in 1988 required that "property shall serve its social function," and that the government should "expropriate for the purpose of agrarian reform , rural property that is not performing its social function." Under Article 186 of the Constitution, a social function is performed when rural property simultaneously meets

14338-421: The opportunity to buy land from landowners, but in a negotiated process. In the words of an American scholar, despite its efforts in resettlement, the Cardoso government did not confront the prevailing mode of agricultural production: concentrated, mechanized, latifundia-friendly commodity production—and the resulting injustices. In his own words, what Cardoso could not accept about the MST was what he saw not as

14472-570: The passage of the Foreign Affairs Agencies Consolidation Act in 1998 and the bombings of U.S. Embassy chanceries in east Africa in the same year, missions have gradually been moved into U.S. Embassy chancery compounds. The country programs are supported by USAID's headquarters in Washington, D.C., "USAID/Washington", where about half of USAID's Foreign Service officers work on rotation from foreign assignments, alongside USAID's Civil Service staff and top leadership. USAID

14606-415: The peasant leagues of the 1960s, who sought land reform strictly through legal means, by favoring trade unionism , and striving to wrestle concessions from bosses for rural workers. But the more aggressive tactics of the MST in striving for access to land gave a political legitimacy that soon outshone CONTAG, which limited itself to trade-unionism in the strictest sense, acting until today as a rural branch of

14740-552: The police with "excessive use of force." The group of attorneys made public a previously classified report by the Council of Public Attorneys of Rio Grande do Sul, and asked the state to ban the MST by declaring it an illegal organization. The report declared further investigation pointless, "as it was public knowledge that the movement and its leadership were guilty of engaging in organized criminality." The report also proposed that where MST activists could "cause electoral disequilibrium,"

14874-430: The policy favored economies of scale , given the limited number of landowners, but simultaneously made it difficult for small planters and peasants to obtain the land needed to practice subsistence agriculture and small-scale farming. The consolidation of land ownership into just a few hands had ties to the advent of capitalism in Brazil, and opposition and insurrection in the 19th and early 20th century (for example,

15008-424: The political spectrum believed that it was an objective economic necessity to permit the end of Brazilian rural society through mechanized agrobusiness and forced urbanization . The left, in particular, felt that the technologically backward, feudal latifundia impeded both economic modernization and democratization. During the 1960s, various groups attempted land reform through the legal system, beginning with

15142-507: The private sector to align business goals with development objectives. Through HEARTH, USAID implements One Health principles to achieve sustainable benefits for both people and the environment through projects focused on livelihoods, well-being, conservation, biodiversity, and governance. Examples of projects assisted by Democracy offices are projects for the country's political institutions, including elections, political parties, legislatures, and human rights organizations. Counterparts include

15276-463: The region are not expected to survive spillways and other impacts the dam created, threatening the continued success of these species. Supporting services are one which help stabilize a particular ecosystem. In the wake of the dam's completion the region it inhabits underwent eutrophication, the process of soil becoming too nutrient rich, making it a breeding ground for malaria carrying mosquitos and ideal habitat for excessive aquatic plant life growth as

15410-488: The reservoir which lack adequate infrastructure. Construction of the dam attracted migrants which, along with the reservoir, significantly increased malaria and AIDS cases. The completion of Phase I in 1984 led to a large amount of unemployment among its 20,000 employees and subsequent migration from the area. The flooded area is in the Tocantins-Araguaia-Maranhão moist forests ecoregion, the most degraded in

15544-413: The risks associated with global climate change . U.S. environmental regulation laws require that programs sponsored by USAID should be both economically and environmentally sustainable . To support U.S. geopolitical interests, Congress appropriates exceptional financial assistance to allies, largely in the form of "Economic Support Funds" (ESF). USAID is called on to administer the bulk (90%) of ESF and

15678-702: The rural poor then attempted to achieve land reform from below, through grassroots action. MST broke new ground by tackling land reform itself, by "breaking...dependent relations with parties, governments, and other institutions," and framing the issue in purely political terms, rather than social, ethical, or religious ones. The first statute to regulate land ownership in Brazil after its independence , Law 601 or Lei de Terras (Landed Property Act), took effect September 18, 1850. A colonial administration , based on Portuguese feudal law , had previously considered property ownership to stem from royal grants ( sesmarias ), and were passed through primogeniture ( morgadio ). In

15812-512: The sale and use of GM soybeans, which led MST's Stedile to call him a " transgenic politician." The dominance of transnationals over Brazilian seed production was summed by the fact that the Brazilian hybrid seed industry in the early 2000s was already 82% Monsanto-owned, which the MST saw as detrimental to the development of organic agriculture in spite of the economic benefits, and enabling possible future health hazards similar to intensive use of pesticides . Stedile later called Monsanto one of

15946-474: The state's military police that 3,000 people earned a living in Southern Bahia from theft of wood. In 2008, a group of public attorneys from Rio Grande do Sul who were working with the state's military police issued a report, charging the MST with collusion with international terrorist groups. The report was used in state courts, according to Amnesty International , to justify eviction orders carried out by

16080-672: The strengthening of developing countries' own universities. Local universities' programs in developmentally important sectors are assisted directly and through USAID support for forming partnerships with U.S. universities. The various forms of technical assistance are frequently coordinated as capacity-building packages for the development of local institutions. Financial assistance supplies cash to developing country organizations to supplement their budgets. USAID also provides financial assistance to local and international NGOs who in turn give technical assistance in developing countries. Although USAID formerly provided loans, all financial assistance

16214-672: The technical resources of the private sector, other U.S. government agencies, universities, and NGOs to participate in this assistance. Programs of the various types above frequently reinforce one another. For example, the Foreign Assistance Act requires USAID to use funds appropriated for geopolitical purposes ("Economic Support Funds") to support socioeconomic development to the maximum extent possible. USAID delivers both technical assistance and financial assistance. Technical assistance includes technical advice, training, scholarships, construction, and commodities. Technical assistance

16348-474: The ten transnational companies that controlled virtually all international agrarian production and commodity trading. Similarly, in 2006, the MST occupied a research station in Paraná owned by Swiss corporation Syngenta , which had produced GMO contamination near the Iguaçu National Park . After a bitter confrontation over the existence of the station (which included easing of previous restrictions by

16482-498: The then-ongoing police officers' strikes, as a plot to "destabilize" the military. In terms of concrete measures, Cardoso's government's approach to land reform was divided: while the administration simultaneously acquired land for settlement and increased taxes on unused land, it also forbade public inspection of invaded land—thereby precluding future expropriation, and the disbursement of public funds to people involved in such invasions. Cardoso's main land reform project, supported by

16616-525: The tracks of the groundbreaking 1963 work by journalist Rui Facó  [ pt ; fr ] ( Cangaceiros e Fanáticos ), tend to conflate early 20th-century banditry in northeastern Brazil ( cangaço ) with messianism as a kind of social banditry , a protest against such social inequalities as the uneven distribution of land assets. This theory developed independently in English-speaking academia around Eric Hobsbawn 's 1959 work Primitive Rebels . It

16750-479: The world. USAID's staffing reported to Congress in June 2016 totaled 10,235, including both field missions "overseas" (7,176) and the Washington DC headquarters (3,059). Of this total, 1,850 were USAID Foreign service officers who spend their careers mostly residing overseas (1,586 overseas in June 2016) and partly on rotation in Washington DC (264). The Foreign service officers stationed overseas worked alongside

16884-401: Was a response to the poverty of so many people who had little prospects of productive, continuous work in conventional labor markets. This reality was admitted by President Cardoso in a 1996 interview: "I'm not going to say that my government will be of the excluded, for that it cannot be ... I don't know how many excluded there will be." In 2002, João Pedro Stedile admitted that in plotting

17018-756: Was asked to assign funding for a dam on the Tocantins. Two options were available: the Tucuruí Dam and Santo Antonio Dam (unrelated to the Santo Antonio Dam on the Madeira river ). In 1973, the Engevix-Ecotec consortium carried out feasibility studies and the Santo Antonio Dam was ruled out in 1974. Later in 1974, the Tucuruí Dam was approved during the President Ernesto Geisel administration. The dam

17152-484: Was built primarily as a source of hydroelectricity and second for navigation between the upper and lower Tocantins River . The electricity was and is primarily supplied to industrial interests from the aluminum industry like Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce . Communities in Northeast Brazil would also benefit as well, such as Belém , São Luiz , Marabá , and later Eastern Amazonia. The World Bank refused to fund

17286-506: Was completed 3 years behind schedule on November 10, 1984. The navigation lock that is part of the dam's design was only partially completed during Phase I with only the upper portion. The construction costs were predicted to be $ 3.6 billion but rose to over 5.5 billion by construction's end. Including interest during construction, the total cost for Phase I was $ 7.5 billion. Until 1999, Phase I produced an average of 21,428 terawatt-hours (77,140 PJ) of electricity per year. Construction on

17420-540: Was completed in April 2007 but construction on the navigation locks is behind schedule. Eletrobras is a Brazilian hydroelectric power company based in Rio de Janeiro. The 52% state owned electrical company generates enough energy to support about one third of Brazil's annual energy consumption. Protests to the dam's construction and continued operation have been rampant since the project was announced. While anti-dam protests result from

17554-543: Was criticized for its unspecific definition of "social movement," but also praised for melding political and religious movements, previously separately examined. This blend was later the basis for the MST's emergence. Both messianism and cangaço disappeared in the late 1930s, but in the 1940s and '50s, additional peasant resistance broke out to evictions and land grabbing by powerful ranchers: These local affairs, however, were repressed or settled locally, and did not give rise to an ideology. Policy makers and scholars across

17688-535: Was shot dead, and the other tortured; MST was suspected to be involved. Throughout the early 2000s, the MST occupied functioning facilities owned by large corporations, whose activities it considered at odds with the social function of property. On March 8, 2005, the MST invaded a nursery and a research center in Barra do Ribeiro , 56 km (34.8 mi) from Porto Alegre , both owned by Aracruz Celulose . The MST members held local guards captive while they ripped plants from

17822-569: Was subsequently established by the executive order of President John F. Kennedy , who sought to unite several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency. USAID became the first U.S. foreign assistance organization whose primary focus was long-term socioeconomic development. USAID's programs are authorized by Congress in the Foreign Assistance Act , which Congress supplements through directions in annual funding appropriation acts and other legislation. As an official component of U.S. foreign policy, USAID operates subject to

17956-544: Was unable to change the productive system. The march was held to demand, among other things, that President Lula implement his own limited agrarian reform plan, rather than spend the project's budget on servicing the national debt [Ramos, 2005]. Several MST leaders met with President Lula da Silva on May 18, 2005—a meeting that had been resisted by Lula since his taking of office. The leaders presented Lula with 16 demands, including economic reform, greater public spending, and public housing. In interviews with Reuters , many of

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