BRASILIA – The Canadian mining company Belo Sun, a company that intends to install a billion dollar exploration project in gold in Volta Grande do Xingu, near the Belo Monte hydroelectric power station, no For, has acquired a series of lots of land reform in the region, in irregular transactions.
At least 21 lots of families have settled in Vila Ressaca, located in the municipality of Senator José Porfirio, were negotiated directly by the company and the residents. O state had access to contracts in which the company pays amounts up to 1 million reais and registers the deeds in a notary office. In these, Belo Sun establishes, for example, that the settlers transfer the ownership of the land to the mining company, without any embarrassment.
The mining company has included a clause in the contracts for the purchase of the lots to determine that any liability that may appear on the areas – whether social, environmental, tax or any other type of litigation – is the responsibility of the settler who sold the land. . It is also agreed that once the agreed payment has been made, the company owes the settler no other sum, nor “participation in the result of the exploitation” of the gold which will be made on the site.
For a land reform lot to be sold by its resident, the law imposes a series of conditions, such as the fact that the occupant has lived on this land for a minimum period of ten years and that the land has the issuance of his final title of possession. It turns out that practically no lot in Vila Ressaca has this document, which is issued by the incra.
A detailed study of these operations was carried out by researchers from the Federal University of Pará (PA), Rosa Elizabeth Acevedo and Elielson Pereira da Silva. In the survey carried out last year, researchers provide information on each of the operations. “The settlers of the Ressaca implantation project are monitoring the purchase of lots for the installation of the mining company camp, while others are on alert for future work, such as the tailings pond.” , they say. “There are several restrictions, added to the reduction of water in streams and in Xingu River, the disappearance of fish from the rivers, the difficulties for farmers to sell their products in Vila da Ressaca.
O state found that these transactions had been investigated by the Federal Police. A police investigation has been opened to investigate the sale of public land to Belo Sun in the region.
At the same time, a procedure is still in progress on the “possible infringements committed by the company of mining Belo Sun, who would invade the area of the indigenous community of São Francisco, in Volta Grande do Xingu, without the permission of the indigenous chiefs, to collect soil samples and make demarcations in this area ”.
The report asked the company about irregular land purchases to expand its mining project. There was no demonstration about it. The Incra declared that “in the event of transfer of zones of the National Program of Agrarian Reform (PNRA) by settlers, without the agreement of the INCRA, an administrative offense can be configured, with application of the internal regulations”.
As the report of state on Tuesday 9, INCRA, organ of the The Minister of Agriculture responsible for agrarian reform policy in the country, signed a contract with Belo Sun to reduce the area of a colony created 22 years ago, in Volta Grande do Xingu, to open up the space of an industrial mine to explore by Canadian company Belo Sun. The project would be installed a few kilometers downstream from the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.
The Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) will call the Federal Justice request cancellation of the contract signed between Incra and the mining company Belo Sun, which provides for the reduction of an agrarian settlement area in Pará, with the aim of opening up space for gold mining in the region.
“It is clear that this contract is null and void and must be terminated. We will immediately request the suspension of this contract and its cancellation. We are going to sue the Federal Court in Altamira, ”he told the state the regional human rights defender in Pará Elisângela Machado Côrtes.
The DPU confirmed that the company Belo Sun, before signing the agreement with Incra, had made the direct purchase of several lots in the agrarian colony with local residents, which is illegal. “See the irony of this situation. Incra claims that the area is no longer used for land reform, but Incra itself knows that there has been an illegal purchase of land in the area by Belo Sun, ”Cortês said. “In practice, INCRA regularizes land grabbing. The agency uses the company’s illegal act to say that families have been taken out of it and therefore it is no longer being used for land reform. It’s to seal the crime.
The agreement relates in particular to the transfer to Incra of the Ricaville farm, which has an area of 1,898 hectares. The agency does not explain who the farm is for, nor does it mention whether it intends to move families from Pará to Mato grosso. The agreement also provides for Belo Sun to buy, for Incra, two 4×4 double-cab traction vans, ten laptops, ten tablets, four scanners and four “RTK” type GPS devices.
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