Brazil: Declaration of La Via Campesina Brazil on the EU-Mercosur Agreement
Brasilia, March 19, 2024.
We, the social movements of the rural world, waters, and forests, articulated within La Via Campesina Brazil, gathered in Brasilia from March 17th to 19th, 2024, publicly express our total rejection of the European Union – Mercosur Agreement. The Agreement under discussion represents a setback for Brazil and the Mercosur countries in terms of socio-economic development, as well as a frontal attack on the sovereignty of our countries. There is nothing new in the current terms of the Agreement, which has already been rejected more than 20 years ago. The current text of the Agreement, resumed in 2019, represents the essence of Bolsonaro’s DNA with no commitment to the development of our country.
The Agreement assumes neo-colonial characteristics in its conception and threatens, in its terms, our peoples and territories, posing a danger for peasant agriculture, traditional communities, and delivering our common goods to the interests of international capital, thus consolidating the export-oriented nature of our economy, which is basically to continue exporting raw materials to meet the demands of European countries in exchange for industrialized products. Therefore, we want to publicly denounce to the Brazilian people the risks that the Agreement presents both for peasant family agriculture and for the Brazilian industry, if it is to be signed. We ask that President Lula listen to the clamor of the people of the rural world, waters, and forests and put an end to the ongoing negotiations and make room for the construction of a popular project for national development in Brazil.