His Excellency Mr Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
DD President of the Republic
Dear Mr President,
Yesterday was an historic day for the country and a landmark for the Amazon, with the final approval by the Senate of Bill 458/09, regarding land tenure regularisation in the region. The objectives of establishing rights, promoting justice and social inclusion, stepping up public governance and fighting crime – that I know were the law’s motivation - have been distorted and have ended up helping to reaffirm privileges and the deplorable patrimonial bias which is abusive and incompatible with the needs of the country and interests of its people.
Unfortunately, after years of struggle against this kind of attitude, we now have gone backwards in time, in the name of the people but against the people and against the preservation of the forests and the commitment that Brazil undertook to reduce persistent deforestation that was degrading our national patrimony, and threatens efforts to contain global warming.
The main problem with the Bill 458/09 is the creation of loopholes that grant amnesty to those who have committed crimes of appropriating large swathes of public land, so they may now benefit from policies that were originally conceived for smallholder squatters, whose rights are safeguarded by the Federal Constitution.
Experts who have been accompanying the issue of land tenure in the Amazon categorically affirm that Bill 458/09, as it was approved yesterday, constitutes a serious regression, as pointed out by the Federal Attorney in the State of Para, Dr Felicio Pontes: “Bill 458/09 will legitimise land grabbing in the Amazon and will throw away 15 years of hard work carried out by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in the State of Para, in their fight against illegal land grabbing.”
This situation will affect all Amazon states. And in its wake will follow more destruction of forests for as we already know land grabbing has always been a first step to environmental devastation.
Therefore, Mr President, it is in your hands to avoid such a monumental error that would not be in keeping with the your Government’s policy of recovery of social debt, and with the respect owed to so many companions who gave their lives for the forest and for the people of the Amazon. They are many – Padre Josimo, Irma Dorothy, Chico Mendes, Eilson Pinheiro – for whom Your Excellency was once prosecuted by the National Security Law– who have watered the Amazon land with their own blood, in the hope that, one day with a democratic and popular government, we could separate the wheat from the chaff.
In their memory, Mr President, and in the name of
Allow myself, Mr President, and with the same insistence, to request that you
take special care in the definition of enabling regulations for the Bill. It is of utmost importance that the proposed committee responsible for the evaluation of the regulatory processes is independent, and ensures the effective participation of those from civil society, especially with the participation of those who represent the popular rural movement and the environmental movement.
Given the above considerations, Mr President, I therefore ask Your Excellency to veto sections II and IV of article 2º; article 7º and article 13.
With the respect and fraternity that united us,
Yours faithfully,
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