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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/02/dialogue-among-family-says-mst-leader-on-meeting-with-colombian-vice-president-francia-marquez/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">"Dialogue among family," says MST leader on meeting with Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Michele de Mello - August 2, 2022<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><img src="cid:ii_l6e8b0970" alt="image.png" width="392" height="221"><br><p><font size="1">Francia Márquez met with leaders of Brazilian popular movements on July 26, in São Paulo - Photo: Vinícius Poço de Toledo
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<p>The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) was one of the
organizations that met with the Vice President-elect of Colombia,
Francia Márquez, during her visit to Brazil on July 26. The meeting at
the Perseu Abramo Foundation, in São Paulo, was a “dialogue among
family,” said MST leader Messilene Gorete, adding, “it served to
introduce ourselves and to put ourselves at the disposal of the people’s
government of Colombia.</p>
<p>The Landless Movement is present in 24 Brazilian states, with around
450,000 families who have acquired land through collective and organized
peasant struggle. Created in 1984, the Movement’s principal demand is
the right to the social purpose of the land: land for those who live and
produce on it, with respect for the environment and a guarantee of food
sovereignty and a call for structural changes in the country.</p>
<p>Today, one of the main issues is Popular Agrarian Reform,
guaranteeing land tenure and use for Indigenous, riverine, and
quilombolas communities, and organizing national agricultural production
with the goal of delivering healthy food, free of pesticides and
genetically modified organisms (GMOs), to the population. This year
alone, the MST carried out around 60 actions, including 28 occupations
of areas considered unproductive.</p>
<img src="https://peoplesdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/image_processing20211109-13537-1yr6yb2-2.jpeg" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="245">With support from MST militants, Comuna El Maizal produces native corn seeds for national distribution / Comuna El Maizal
<p>Like Brazil, Colombia has one of the highest land ownership
inequalities in the region. Independent surveys indicate that 5% of the
Colombian population owns 87% of the land.</p>
<p>Data from the last National Agricultural Census in Colombia indicates
that of the 113 million hectares of arable land in the country, about
75% of the productive units have less than 5 hectares and represent 2.1%
of the area covered by the census. Properties larger than 500 hectares
represent 0.4% of the units and account for 41.1% of the territory.</p>
<p>The dispute over territory is what gave rise to the armed conflict
that has lasted 58 years. To defend the land on which they lived and
made a living, Colombian small farmers began to organize themselves into
peasant leagues, which gave rise to the two largest guerrillas in the
country: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army
(FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).</p>
<p>One of the main proposals of the new government is to carry out
comprehensive agrarian reform, as provided for in the Peace Accords,
signed in 2016 between then-President Juan Manuel Santos and the defunct
FARC-EP guerrillas. It was agreed that seven million hectares were to
be granted to the former Colombian guerrillas, which has not happened.</p>
<p>The proposal of the Historic Pact, the group under which Gustavo
Petro was elected, is to move forward with agreements made to the former
FARC-EP and to advance in land concessions and the demarcation of
Indigenous and quilombola lands. “If they manage to carry out agrarian
reform in this context, it will be a great model for us to carry out
agrarian reform in Brazil,” argues Messilene Gorete.</p>
<p>In the conversation with the MST, Francia Márquez showed interest in
learning about the local experience in order to bring examples to
Colombia, and reiterated that agrarian reform is a priority for her
government.</p>
<p>“To hear this from a Vice President, knowing what it means for
Colombia and for us, a movement that fights for agrarian reform as its
central goal, inspires us to put pressure on the Brazilian government to
consider this agenda as a priority, because it is a great need. There
will only be justice and equality in Brazil if there is true agrarian
reform,” says Messilene Gorete.</p>
<img src="https://peoplesdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/image_processing20220726-4411-twm9ay.jpeg" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="246">Food
distribution in Pernambuco; During the pandemic, the MST donated more
than six thousand tons of food produced in the settlements / Ana Olívia
Godoy/MST-PE
<p>Through cooperativism and projects based on the solidarity economy,
the MST has become the largest producer of agro-ecologically grown rice
in Latin America, with an annual production of more than 3,000 hectares
and 15,000 tons of rice. Nationwide, the MST has created 160
cooperatives, 120 agro-industries and 1,900 associations.</p>
<p>For this reason, one of the points agreed upon with the Colombian
Vice President was training on agro-ecological production within
political and technical education. This will occur within the scope of
the boosting of rice production, based on the experience of the MST.
“From the Florestan Fernandes School we want to help them build
agroecology schools in Colombia,” said Messilene.</p>
<p>For the former coordinator of the Internationalist Brigade Apolônio
de Carvalho, the inauguration of a leftist government in Colombia and
the possibility of Lula da Silva’s victory in Brazil marks a new moment
for Latin America.</p>
<p>“We can think of a new cycle of progressive governments that bet on
Latin American integration, based on joint work mechanisms such as
UNASUR, MERCOSUR and ALBA. It will certainly be a new chapter in the
history of Latin America and a chapter in favor of the people,”
concludes the MST leader.</p>
<p><em>This article was originally published in <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2022/08/01/dialogo-entre-irmaos-diz-dirigente-do-mst-sobre-reuniao-com-vice-colombiana-francia-marquez">Brasil de Fato</a>.</em></p>
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