“Only Lula can help us”, the landless peasants expect a lot from the former president if he is elected

“He has oppressed us since the first day of his mandate”, asserts Gil about Jair Bolsonaro, the current far-right president of Brazil, candidate for his re-election. Gil is a member of the Landless Movement (MST). The popular peasant organization has been fighting for a better distribution of arable land for more than 40 years. The movement, the leading producer of organic rice in Latin America, is distributed in almost all the states of the country. It has enabled nearly 500 000 landless families to recover agricultural land.

>> Presidential election in Brazil: the hope of Lula’s “historic” activists

During the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro, the militants were the object of threats, repeated attacks. Some were killed. They are strong allies for former President Lula, candidate for the presidential election, whose first round takes place on Sunday 2 October. The leader of a grand left-wing coalition is given the lead in the polls. The MST expects a lot from him. He wants to turn the Bolsonaro page.

It’s 6 a.m. in the bohemian district of Rio, the bars and nightclubs are empty when Gil comes to unload his goods: vegan beetroot bread, onions, cassava. Before, the 60-year-old landless peasant for 20 years was a professor of theology. He lives on a collective farm two and a half hours from Rio. He denounces the attacks against landless militants described as “terrorists” by Jair Bolsonaro. “He silenced ussays Gil. We are afraid to demonstrate, to do business because he authorized the owners to shoot us.”

“The terrorist is [Jair Bolsonaro]. Only Lula can help us. I trust him”

Gil, landless peasant

at franceinfo

A hope that Marina Dos Santos wants to bring to Congress. Of peasant origin, she is running as a deputy of the Lula workers’ party in the state of Rio. His priority: agrarian reform. “In Brazil, only 1% of the population owns more than 46% of the arable landdetails Marina Dos Santos. This concentration of wealth is one of the causes of hunger and inequality affecting this country.”

In the event of the election of the leftist candidate, the MST intends to create popular committees “to help Lula during the four years of his mandate because the opposition will be tough”says Marina Dos Santos. “We will be guarantors of democracy while keeping a critical eye”announces the MP, so that the landless, the poor and the workers are a government priority.