Lula’s message heats up relations between social organizations and the government

BRASILIA, Brasil, November 27, 2006

In a document made public on Friday, November 24, 51 social organizations repudiated the focus Taxi Heathrow Airport that President Lula held with regard to the matter of the environment, in his speech on Monday, November 21, at the inauguration of a bio-diesel plant in Barra del Bugres, in Mato Grosso.

On that occasion, Lula commented on the need for the growth and development of the country, and said that he intends to remove the “obstacles” presented by the environmental control concerns of the Public Ministry, the quilombolas and the indigenous peoples, implying that they frequently hinder needed investments in the country. 

“Development, yes. In whatever way, no,” is the title of the document signed by the social and environmental movements, among them the Brazilian Association of NGO’s (ABONG in Spanish), the Amazon Work Group (GTA in Spanish), the Social Environmental Institute (ISA in Spanish) and the Coordination of the Brazilian Amazon Indigenous Organizations (COIAB in Spanish).  

In the document the organizations argue that to free “development should not mean the suppressing of rights or legal guarantees.” 

In a separate statement, the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI in Spanish) said that it is “unacceptable that the chief executive of the country should, with that kind of statement, reinforce the high degree of existing prejudices against Blacks and Indians, and also be disrespectful of the work of the Public Ministry, whose function it is to supervise the enforcement of the laws of the country.”  

CIMI reminded that Lula was elected by the Black and Indian votes, and what is expected is that their rights “be fully respected and the country set on the road toward a sustainable development, that respects the ethnic and cultural diversity existent in Brazil, our greatest heritage. Development should benefit all of society and not just capital investment.” 

Relations between the government and the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB in Spanish) are also tense. The week before, Bishop Aldo Pagotto, President of the Conference’s Commission for the Service of Charity, Justice and Peace, said that the federal government’s Family Bag “is a program that spoils.” As the program does not require any matching commitments, the recipient families “content themselves with the minimum,” besides which the program also demobilizes the people. 

Pagotto stated that the same process occurs where those without access to the land are settled. He defined them as being “really rural slums,” and explained: “Without access to credit, without technical assistance, the people turn away from farming.”

The Ministry of Social Development, responsible for the program, refuted Pagotto’s criticisms, alleging that they reveal “a prejudice against the poorer populations to which the Family Bag is destined, a program to which they have a right guaranteed by law.”  

Pagotto hopes that the president will listen to the people more. “We are distrustful because of there possibly being much bartering in the negotiations with the political parties,” he pointed out.