The pro-rural media is once again drooling its hatred for the MST, which yesterday returned to reoccupy land “claim-jumped” by Cutrale in Iaras, in rural São Paulo.
Altamiro Borges, a one-time editor of Vermelho — the party organ of the PCdoB — recites the litany: the commercial media in Brazil is systematically biased against the Landless Workers Movement, or MST.
The allegation has the misfortune of being painfully obvious, independent of which side you favor. I translate in the spirit of providing context for official diplomatic cables on the situation of the MST.
TV anchors and commentators denounced the “invasion” and ran archive footage in which orange trees were damaged …. footage dating from September 2009. Though Incra has ruled again and again that the land belongs to the federal union, the media insist on demonizing the landless workers movement .
The occupation of Cutrale was part of a day of action for agrarian reform, including an encampment with 4,000 participants in Brasilia and various actions in other states. The media aired not a single word of our grievances or the absurdities of land ownership in Brazil. The media prefers to hear from the “victim,” Cutrale – a fact that at least attracts attention, even if it is negative attention, to the problem of land entitlement.
A criminal omission
At critical moments, the hegemonic mass media always takes sides. It unfailingly takes the side of the powerful, including in this case the barons of agribusiness, against the side of the workers. It will even cover up events that it has already reported during a less eventful period. Cutrale’s is an emblematic case. The newsrooms know full well the irregularities practiced by this company, but prefer the criminal conspiracy of silence.
In May 2003, for example, Veja magazine — possibly for mercenary reasons –- did a long report on Cutrale. Veja recounted that Cutrale is one of the largest agribusiness concerns in the world and that it has built its empire on the basis of predatory and illegal practices. “The Brazilian José Luís Cutrale and his family control 30% of the world market in orange juice, a figure comparable to that of OPEC in the oil business”.
Exploitation, tax avoidance and illegal repatriation of profits
According to Veja, “The company’s secret is buying the fruit at laughable prices … pressing it at the lowest cost possible and selling the end product high”. In 2001, the Cardoso government launched an investigation into Cutrale’s enormous profitability (in the1980s, it posted staggering margins in the neighborhood of 70%).
“An official at the federal tax administration told Veja that part of the strategy used to optimize profits was attributing some of the results to an offshore subsidiary in the Caymans. In this manner, the tax official said, Cutrale paid lower taxes in Brazil”.
Cosan, a candidate for the title of Standard Oil of Ethanol, also remits its profits to tax havens offshore.
“Agressive management”
In general, the Veja article criticized the “managerial aggression of the Cutrale family”, which it said was “legendary in rural São Paulo.” Orange growers in Brazil have few options for transporting their product to market. There are only five large buyers, including Cutrale. For this reason, Cutrale is able to maintain its reign over the orange with a mixture of fear and dependency.”
“On one hand, growers need a buyer. On the other hand, they are brow-beaten by such tactics as negotiation of a lower price.” Various growers told Veja about the brutal pressure to lower prices or even to sell their groves, complete with menacing helicopter overflights and other terrorist tactics.
A mountain of lawsuits
This bombastic article was simply filed and forgotten, as were the innumerable lawsuits against Cutrale for violations of labor laws, environmental crimes and pressure tactics used against growers. Between1 994 and 2003, the company was the subject of five cases in the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (Cade) for formation of a cartel.
The Brazilian FTC.
Today, the national media simply forgets these facts about Cutrale in order to criminalize the MST. Cutrale is a saint; the MST is a demon. The “privately-owned” media do not even bother to report that the land in Iaras do not legally belong to Cutrale. They are part of the Monções Nucleus, a plot of 30,000 hectares belonging to the federal union. That is to say, these lands have been “claim-jumped” -– in a word, stolen!
[Here, the author inserts the text of the ruling assigning the land to the federal government, by virtue of a century-old bill setting aside this land for family farming.]
The “Orange” Media
In 2007, a federal court granted ownership of the entire expanse to Incra. Cutrale, however, remains in the area based on delaying legal tactics.
I have no way of judging the legal risk the company runs at the moment as the case drags through appeal after appeal. The tactics of the MST are to commit trespass offenses that bring questions of legal entitlement to court, where the gears grind slow and exceedingly dull.
After Cutrale stole title to the land and monopolized production, thousands of small and midsize growers went bankrupt and 280,000 hectares of oranges were destroyed. All the media shows us, however, is the incident with the bulldozer from 2009.
With respect to the Cutrales, with their net worth of nearly $5 billion, meanwhile, the columnists are the real laranjas! Some even hitch their wagon to Big Orange Juice and sell themselves out.
Laranja is slang for a front, facade, or other clandestine agent.
Filed under: Agribusiness, Bioenergy, Black Markets, Business, Income Redistribution, Infotainment, Journalism, Labor Relations, Media, Privatization, Public Policy, Real Estate
