Minas Gerais resolves hundreds of land conflicts peacefully.

Mines 247 - Since the beginning of Fernando Pimentel's administration in Minas Gerais, 176 land conflicts in rural or urban areas have been resolved. The actions of the Minas Gerais executive branch have benefited more than 20 families, corresponding to an estimated population of almost 100 people. Many of these people have had their living areas regularized and urbanized, with paving, water, sewage, and electricity installation. The work of mediating conflicts in rural or urban areas is the responsibility of the Permanent Dialogue and Negotiation Table with Urban and Rural Occupations and other Groups Involved in Socio-environmental and Land Conflicts – MDNP. The establishment of the Dialogue Table was one of the first decisions of Governor Fernando Pimentel upon assuming the leadership of the Minas Gerais government.

The Dialogue Table began its work a few days after the governor's inauguration, on February 02, 2015, to address a demand from the Popular Brigades regarding an occupation in the municipality of Timóteo, in the Vale do Aço region. Thus, the work began even before the official establishment of the MDNP (National Dialogue Table), whose decree was signed on July 01 of the same year, because the practice of previous governments was to treat land issues as a "police matter," ignoring their social dimension, which led to a proliferation of conflicts in the state.

The purpose of the Minas Gerais state government is to reverse the standard logic with which land issues are traditionally addressed in Brazil. Instead of considering land occupations as a "police matter," the Minas Gerais executive branch proposes to develop a public policy to deal with land conflicts as social problems that should be resolved peacefully, respecting all those involved and seeking adequate housing solutions for the settlers, always ensuring respect for human rights.

According to the Governor's directive, expressed in the decree establishing the Dialogue Table, the entire Minas Gerais government must assume responsibility for mediation in conflict situations. Specifically, the head of the Minas Gerais executive branch mandated that various secretariats, autonomous agencies, and other state-related institutions join the Table. In addition to representatives from various Minas Gerais government bodies, several federal and civil society institutions were invited.

Representing the Minas Gerais state government are the state secretariats of Cities, Agriculture and Livestock, Government, Civil Affairs, Planning, Public Security, Human Rights, Labor and Social Development, Agrarian Development, Culture, Environment, Integrated Development, as well as the Military Police, the Minas Gerais Rural Technical Assistance and Extension Company (EMATER-MG), the State Housing Company (COHAB-MG), and the State Attorney General's Office. Invited institutions include the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais, the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJMG), the State Public Prosecutor's Office (MPE), the State Public Defender's Office, the Federal Public Defender's Office, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), and the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-MG). Representatives of social movements and land occupations are also participating in the Dialogue Table. In total, there are 26 institutions, including state agencies, invited guests, and representatives of civil society.

The Working Group appointed to form the Board had to begin its work not only before the decree was signed, but also before defining a standard working methodology, due to the number of urgent demands inherited from previous governments.

To find relevant references, the members of the panel conducted a survey to look for similar experiences in Brazil. Unfortunately, no model with such a broad scope as the one intended to be implemented in Minas Gerais was found. The distinguishing features of the Minas Gerais proposal are the structuring of a permanent operational body capable of acting in all conflict situations, prioritizing human rights and involving the entire government, as well as society. Therefore, the Minas Gerais methodology is innovative in proposing a permanent, multidisciplinary, institutional structure capable of accumulating experience to be used in other situations.

Among the most emblematic cases involving the Dialogue Table is the occupation of Glória, in Uberlândia. The occupation was regularized by the Minas Gerais State Government as the Élisson Pietro neighborhood. This action benefited more than 2.800 families. The Governor was present to sign the regularization and land ownership documents for the settled families. On that occasion, he announced that, in addition to the property title, the residents will also benefit from the urbanization of the new neighborhood through works by COHAB, Cemig, and Copasa, among other government agencies.

Another example of successful conflict mediation occurred in the Santa Branca neighborhood of Greater Belo Horizonte. Several motels are located there, attracting a large number of sex workers, including transgender individuals. The presence of this group provoked an aggressive reaction from the local population and led to the intervention of the Dialogue Table to resolve the conflict.

Currently, the Dialogue Table is in the final stages of negotiation to resolve the occupation of Isidoro, one of the largest in the country, where more than eight thousand families live – approximately 30 residents. The mediation involves the landowners and is nearing completion. The Government of Minas Gerais intends to adopt the same methodology used in the Irmã Dorothy neighborhood in Uberlândia, ensuring not only regularization but also the urbanization of the area.

According to the technicians participating in the Dialogue Table's work, the action has been a constant learning experience for all actors involved. The practices of the institutions that work in conflict resolution processes are also evolving. One example is the behavior of the Military Police.

The judiciary determines when occupied areas are vacated. At the beginning of the administration, the Military Police still acted according to the guidelines of previous administrations, and thus, the main objective was to comply with the orders of the judges, who usually order the expulsion of families from the occupied land. There was no concern for the human rights of those people, nor for the fate of the displaced families.

Currently, the Military Police participate in the Dialogue Table, as do the state and federal public prosecutors. After some initial setbacks, the Military Police's actions began to change and adapt to the new methodology. Today, when a judge issues a repossession order, the Military Police commanders report to the Dialogue Table before taking any action. In this way, the Government's action prioritizes dialogue, mediation, and the peaceful resolution of the conflict, considering the social dimensions involved and human rights. The Government of Minas Gerais seeks to ensure that international treaties to which the state is a signatory are taken into account during repossession proceedings. 

Unfortunately, the federal government has distanced itself from the work of the Roundtable, and many municipalities are reluctant to participate. Thus, the state is forced to act alone in a large part of the conflicts. Examples of this are occupations along the edges of federal highways. When there are occupations in these locations, the federal government refuses to collaborate and prohibits the families from remaining until a solution is found. The state is then forced to settle these people along state highways until it can find permanent locations for these families to settle.

With the crisis caused by the destruction of Brazil's economy, social problems are increasing and, consequently, so are occupations. New occupation hotspots are being registered in the state, which obliges the Dialogue Table to work tirelessly.

When the Pimentel government took office, it found around 200 large and small conflicts (involving up to 10 families), of which 176 were resolved and many are in advanced stages of resolution. However, the crisis, which caused record unemployment in the country, coupled with the return of poverty, which had been practically eradicated during the Lula and Dilma governments, is causing occupations to increase again.

Most of these are small settlements, and the Dialogue Table's monitoring records approximately 200 new hotspots in the state. According to the technicians involved in the mediation, land tenure problems can be definitively resolved using the methodology developed by the state, but this will only happen with an improvement in the country's economic conditions.