Hundreds of protesters have occupied a government office in Brasilia demanding farmland for 120,000 landless families and other reforms, one of the country’s biggest land rights movements said on Monday.
Dubbing their protest the “cries of the excluded,” Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) and other farmers’ groups occupied the office of the Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management in central Brasilia, the MST said in a statement.
“The demand is for the immediate settlement of more than 120,000 families [living] in encampments throughout the country,” the MST said in the statement, referring to informal rural squats dotted across Brazil.
The ministry did not respond to calls requesting comment and did not issue a statement or posts on Twitter on Monday.
About 5 million families across South America’s largest country are landless, according to a study from Canada’s University of Windsor.
One percent of Brazil’s population owns about 45 percent of the country’s land, the study said.
The Brazilian government says it is working to improve land distribution, but conflicting claims over different pieces of land and unclear titles in rural areas have slowed the process.
Protesters also called for more technical support for farmers and a halt to plans by Brazil’s newly installed government to lift limits on foreigners owning farmland.
“The indiscriminate sale of land to foreigners threatens our national sovereignty,” the MST said.
Officials in Brazil’s new government say land sales will help kick-start economic growth in the recession-hit economy.
Brazilian President Michel Temer was sworn in last week following the impeachment of former Brazilian president Dilma Rouseff, who was seen as an MST ally.
Demonstrations against Temer’s government, including the MST’s office occupation, have hit several Brazilian cities in recent days.
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