The visit was initially scheduled for April 30th, but was postponed due to Lula’s travel to Pope Francis’ funeral.
According to the Brasil de Fato website, the achievement of the peasant families of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) comes after 22 years of struggle for Agrarian Reform.
The 10,500-hectare area was formerly known as the Brazilian Hacienda and, before its occupation, was used for buffalo farming and was in a state of severe environmental degradation. Today, it is a decent place for more than 1,600 persons, with a wide variety of production, including cereal crops, vegetables, fruits, and greens, small-scale livestock farming, and organic farming.
Jocelda Oliveira, a member of the town’s leadership, expresses the collective sentiment: “The word that defines today is emotion (…). Thanks to the struggle and resistance of the community and the MST, we won and have achieved our great victory, which is the settlement.” In addition to being an achievement for the community’s people, it is a victory for the MST, for “the democracy that freed Lula (da Silva) from prison and made him president,” she stated.
Construction of the site began with the occupation of a small portion of the large estate in 2003, which was called the Ernesto Che Guevara camp. On July 16, 2005, due to the increase in the number of families, the occupation moved to the central area. By collective decision, in January 2006 the community was renamed Maila Sabrina, in honor of a landless girl who died in the camp due to a chronic illness.
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