Rio, July 15, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Land invasions by the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) do not represent a weakening of the Administration, according to the Chief of the Presidential Advisory Staff, Minister José Dirceu, speaking yesterday (14), in Rio de Janeiro. He also commented that it is necessary to "lower the temperature" of the agrarian reform issue and avoid a polarization between the UDR (landowners' association) and the MST, together with all sorts of violence.

According to the Minister, President Lula made the right choice in renegotiating the debts of small farmers in the first half of the year, as well as effectuating crop insurance, among other items. Dirceu informed that in the second half of the year, the Administration will go further in its agrarian reform programs. "We shall carry out agrarian reform within the law. The country has means to expropriate unproductive lands, and there are properties that are offered as collateral to banks and state enterprises. Whoever invades a farm knows that the owner has the right to claim its return. Judicial power exists in Brazil." (DAS)