"The Ghosts are Arriving"

The banner at left hung from the rafters at a 300-person strong rally in Santarém this week calling for the government to repeal its cancellation of 99 recently-created agrarian reform projects in Western Pará. Accused of being "ghosts," of not really existing at all, scores of families from the region's farming settlements traveled to Santarém and camped out until their leaders could negotiate a deal with the government. This banner--saying that the ghosts would arrive--hung from one of the buses that left Castelo on Monday to make the very long journey to Santarém on the unpaved Br-163. The agrarian reform settlements were canceled by the government in August when some of the 99 projects in the region were found to be fronts for illegal lumber operations. The farmers in the photo insist that their agrarian reform projects (e.g. the PDS Brasília in Castelo) are not in bed with the lumber mafias, and that the government's wholesale cancellation of all 99 settlements was a hasty move. "The responsible parties for deforestation and violence are not the small family farmers, who were brought here by the government in the first place," one settler said. "We're being accused of that, but in fact it's the lumber people and the ranchers who are working against the law, and often against us!" The 300 settlers stayed in Santarém all week, and left for their homes this morning, after receiving word that INCRA and the federal watchdog ministry (MPF) had reached an agreement guaranteeing the future of the agrarian reform settlements. Another farmer: "Now they see we're real, not ghosts...I hope I can get back to work now!"