Social organisation Vía Campesina Brazil said today that the partial veto of the Forestry Code by Dilma Rousseff is insufficient. Yet they still declared the decision represents a defeat for the big landowners and haciendas.
The member of Via Campesina Brazil, Luis Zareff, said that the vetos are a defeat for “the most backward landowners who expected complete and total amnesty” for their past wrongdoings.
Zareff stated that Rousseff’s decision “does not meet the requirements for healthy food production or environmental conservation.
The activist said Rousseff’s veto is a consolidation of what he calls the ‘agri-business’ represented by the Confederation of Agriculture of Brazil.
According to the analysis of Vía Campesina Brazil, the presence of coalition government and the tense relations between Rousseff and Congress put the president in a difficult opposition to make a full vote on the Forestry Code.
The Brazilian congress ha s a period of four months to analyse the vetoes. To oppose them they need the support of the absolute majority of parliamentarians in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies.
On Friday, Rousseff vetoed 12 articles from the new Forest Code and adopted 31 amendments.
Environmentalist groups and farmers demanded the complete veto of the rule, because they believe it represents a threat to national forests.
