Rural pastoral care: the people don't fit into Temer's budget.

247 - The Network of Rural Pastoral Ministries, an organization that brings together the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the Pastoral Council of Fishermen (CPP), Caritas Brazil, and the Pastoral Service for Migrants (SPM), released a statement with several criticisms of the government of interim president Michel Temer. 

The organizations criticized measures that restrict workers' rights, such as the pension reform, the privatization policy, and the revocation of decrees by the ousted president Dilma Rousseff regarding guarantees for minorities, such as indigenous and quilombola communities.

"It is the people who are hindering the new government. The government doesn't fit within the budget, as can be seen from the announced economic plan that proposes placing a limit on spending in health, education, and other sectors essential to the lives of the people," the text says. 

"A profound political reform is necessary and urgent to guarantee mechanisms for popular participation in the nation's destiny. It is clear that the Executive and Legislative branches do not respond to society, they do not consider the interests of the people. They obey only the dictates of their campaign donors," the organizations say.

Read the full statement from the Pastoral Commissions:

"The people don't fit into the provisional government's budget."

The Network of Rural Pastoral Ministries, composed of the Indigenous Missionary Council – CIMI, the Pastoral Land Commission – CPT, the Pastoral Council of Fishermen – CPP, Caritas Brazil, and the Pastoral Service for Migrants – SPM, shares its anxieties and apprehensions with the groups and communities with which it lives, in the face of institutional violence and the dismantling of rights won through a long process of struggle.

After the Federal Senate temporarily removed President Dilma Rousseff from office in a clearly coup-like maneuver and provisionally installed Michel Temer, measures with the character of a permanent mandate are being irresponsibly imposed. These measures directly affect the weakest and most vulnerable in our country, especially the peoples and communities of the countryside, forests, and waterways.

He formed a new all-male cabinet, all white. No women, no black people, no one aligned with the underprivileged social classes. No fewer than seven of them were cited and denounced in Operation Lava Jato and other corruption cases. Two of them have already had to be removed from office due to leaked recordings that incriminate them.

He promoted the extinction of ministries and the merging of others, especially those focused on social issues, such as the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) and the Secretariat for Human Rights, Racial Equality, and Women, in a process that implicitly dismantles rights. A succession of measures was announced and revoked in a short period of time. An exemplary case is the authority over the delimitation of quilombola lands, which was transferred from INCRA to the Ministry of Education, then to the Ministry of Culture, and finally ended up, along with INCRA itself and other bodies focused on rural populations, under the Civil House.

Her ministers are suggesting that the measures taken by the Dilma government in the months leading up to her removal from office, recognizing indigenous lands and quilombola territories, could be revoked.

There are efforts underway to revoke Decree No. 8.750/2016, which established the National Council of Traditional Peoples and Communities, in clear disregard for the identity and rights of these peoples.

In reality, the issues involving indigenous people, peasants, landless peasants, and traditional communities are a hot potato in the hands of the interim government, which it doesn't know how to handle. The feeling that comes across is that it's looking for a way to get rid of them.

The attack on the rights of the most vulnerable also hits urban communities hard. The first major victim of the interim government was the Right to Housing. The cancellation of contracts was mainly directed against the 'Program Entities' modality, in which future residents manage the project and construction, building larger and better houses at the same costs as constructions carried out by contractors. This measure was revoked in recent days.

And reforms to the pension system are being announced, with an increase in the minimum retirement age and decoupling from the minimum wage, affecting more than 30 million people. A review of the Bolsa Família program is also already clear. The Minister of Health has hinted at the end of the universality of the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system).

It is the people who are hindering the new government. They don't fit within the budget, as can be seen from the announced economic plan that proposes placing a limit on spending in health, education, and other sectors essential to people's lives.

All of this makes clear what was behind the entire process that led to the provisional removal of President Dilma Rousseff. It was a mockery of history and the intelligence of the Brazilian people. And a clear and transparent attack against democracy. In reality, the impeachment process against Dilma did not aim to end corruption or punish the corrupt, but precisely the opposite: to protect the corrupt by giving them power to guarantee their privileges and to block ongoing investigations. And to limit the social gains of the poorest.

The various pronouncements from churches, social pastoral groups, popular movements, jurists, artists, and intellectuals warning of the imminent breakdown of democratic order have been to no avail so far. The president's defense arguments have also been in vain. What could be inferred from the entire procedure adopted became clearly explicit in the recording, made public on May 23rd, of the dialogue between Senator Romero Jucá and the former president of Transpetro, Sérgio Machado. Dilma had to be removed to put a limit on the Lava Jato investigations.

Each day of this new interim government's actions confirms President Temer's subservience to the financial interests of business conglomerates, both national and international, represented primarily by the rural caucus and sectors linked to mining interests.

The Pastoral Groups in Rural Areas denounce the ongoing violence and add their voices to those of many Christian and non-Christian churches, social movements, young people occupying schools in defense of their right to better educational conditions, and thousands of silent families who see their meager gains slipping through their fingers, so that a resounding cry for justice may echo in every corner of this immense Brazil. A profound political reform is necessary and urgent, guaranteeing mechanisms for popular participation in the nation's destiny. It is clear that the Executive and Legislative branches do not respond to society, they do not consider the interests of the people. They obey only the dictates of their campaign donors.

Brasilia, June 07, 2016.

Brazilian Caritas

Pastoral Land Commission – CPT

Indigenous Missionary Council - CIMI

Pastoral Council of Fishermen – CPP

Pastoral Service for Migrants – SPM