Danilo Macedo and Ivan Richard      Reporters Agência Brasil

Brasilia – In the middle of a heated session in the Chamber of Deputies, long after the clock had struck midnight, the leader of the PT, Paulo Teixeira (SP), discovered that the text of the bill under discussion, the new Land Use Code (“Codigo Florestal”), was different from a text that had been agreed on earlier. Teixeira accused the deputy in charge of writing the text (“redator”), Aldo Rebelo (PcdoB-SP), of breaking an agreement made with political party leaders and presenting a deviant text. Rebelo denied the accusation saying the text he presented on the floor was the same text approved in prior negotiations with political party leaders that had been concluded at around 9:00 pm.

Teixeira was categorical: “There is stuff in the text Rebelo presented that was expurgated during party leader negotiations. This is a breach of trust (“quebra de acordo”).”

Rebelo denied making any changes: “I did not change anything and I have witnesses. Political party leaders saw me write the text.”

Teixeira accused Rebelo of making changes in the text in two places. Specifically, wording that delegated to states the consolidation of areas of permanent preservation ("APPs") (which was to be a prerogative of president Dilma Rousseff) and wording that undermined the creation of a brake (“trava”) that restrained the division of properties greater than four taxable areas (“módulos fiscais”) (the brake would have made it impossible for owners of large areas to subdivide them so as to avoid mandatory reforestation).

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English  - content modified

Link - Líder do PT aponta trechos divergentes em textos de Código Florestal