A new maneuver to amend Decree 22/91 is being adopted. Bothered
with the delay of the minister of Justice, Nelson Jobim, the
corporation Sattin S.A. Agropecuaria e Imoveis adopted a new strategy
and requested that the injunction it filed at the Supreme Federal
Court continue to be judged. The company argues that the decree is
unconstitutional because it does not provide for the adversary system,
which benefits invaders of Indian lands in demarcation procedures. The
company is protesting against the demarcation of the Sete Cerros
Indian area of the Guarani-Kaiowa Indians in the state of Mato Grosso
do Sul, comprising 9 thousand hectares. Since December of last year,
the judgement has been suspended several times, the first of which at
the initiative of the Supreme Court itself, which requested the
opinion of the Office of the Attorney General on the matter and in the
last eight months at the request of the Sattin corporation, which
asked minister Nelson Jobim to amend the decree.
On December 13, the Supreme Court once again referred the case to
the Office of the Attorney General for its opinion on the
constitutionality of the decree. The opinion of the Attorney General,
Geraldo Brindeiro, will only be issued after the vacation of the
courts, in February or March, which may or not be accepted by the
Supreme Court. Sattin and the minister of Justice hope that the
opinion of the Attorney General will endorse the constitutionality of
the decree. Indian organizations and different entities and NGOs will
remain mobilized to make sure the Office of the Attorney general and
the Supreme Court take into due account how harmful the decision can
be. Their position is based on a legal thesis defended by Cimi,
according to which the adversary system cannot be provided for in the
decree, as it renders it unconstitutional.
Determined to meet the interests of invaders of Indian lands, the
government is preparing a new offensive, namely, requesting Funai to
propose the inclusion of the adversary system in the bill that
provides for the Statute of Indian Societies, whose approval by the
National Congress has been pending for four years.
ENTITIES HOLD NATIONAL MOURNING DAY FOR THE LAND REFORM
The National Forum for Land Reform and Justice in Rural Areas
held, on December 20th, the National Day in support of the Land reform
in Brazil, which was marked by demonstrations aimed at pressuring the
authorities to carry out the Land Reform and at denouncing the
violence which legitimizes the concentration of the land in the
country. In a note distributed in Brasilia, the Forum, which includes
Cimi's participation, has been denouncing the very weak action of the
government in this area this year, because contrarily to what it has
been announcing, it did not even settle the 40 thousand families it
had promised to.
The worsening of the crisis in rural areas can be clearly
perceived in bloody conflicts such as the one in Corumbiara and in the
imprisonment of landless leaders. The Forum believes that the land
reform should not take the form of a compensatory policy aimed at
alleviating social pressures. Therefore, it will continue to call on
the organized civil society to keep on fighting for democracy in the
land and in the Brazilian society
Brasilia, December 21st, 1995
Indianist Missionary Council