www.upi.com By Carmen Gentile UPI Latin America Correspondent From the International Desk Published 3/7/2003 5:05 PM

SAO PAULO, Brazil, March 7 (UPI) -- Brazil's landless workers movement -- coming off a week of land seizures throughout the country -- said Friday that it would not back down in its fight for agrarian reform even though it considers the nation's president its ally.

The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, known locally as the MST, said it would continue to hold its current seizures and intensify its efforts next month, according to the movement's leadership.

Movement officials said they would increase its efforts until April 17, the seventh anniversary of the 1996 killing of 19 MST members during protests in the northern state of Para.

The MST appeared to catch Brazilian officials off guard when it broke its informal truce with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and invaded several private owned farms during the Carnaval celebration, which ended earlier this week.

"The government of the PT (Lula's Workers' Party) was our dream, but government is government and the movement is the movement," said Jaime Amorim, an MST coordinator.

Founded in the early 1980s, the MST uses large-scale seizures to bring attention to inequitable land distribution in a nation where most of the nation's farmable land is held by a small fraction of the population.

The movement says it has ended its truce with Brazil's leading leftist Workers' Party though still considers Lula an ally to its cause.

Lula, a formal labor activist, won over the MST when he campaigned on a platform that included promises of more aggressive land reform tactics and accelerated distribution efforts.

The reform group however, appears to have grown weary of waiting for change despite the president's relatively brief tenure in office. Since assuming the presidency on Jan. 1, Lula has focused much of his attention on other reform issues, mostly political and economic, and his nationwide hunger eradication program.

Still, PT officials maintain that agrarian reform is in the works, and criticized the MST for its recent invasion of the headquarters of Brazil's National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform in the central states of Mato Grosso and Goias.

"President Lula has only been in office for two months and wants to better the MST's situation," said PT President Jose Genoino in an interview with Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper. "Agrarian reform will be made, but its must be done peacefully, without compromising agriculture productivity."

"The MST cannot treat the PT as its enemy," he said.

Genoino's pleas reflect the PT's decidedly different stance regarding the MST and agrarian reform from its predecessor, the moderate Social Democratic Party led by former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

The Cardoso administration showed less tolerance for land seizures and regularly arrested activists, though said it had it has allocated some 50 million acres to landless workers during his eight-year tenure, a claim the MST widely refutes.

news.bbc.co.uk

Leaders of the landless movement in Brazil have ended a truce with the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, by organising a new wave of land invasions.

Peasant officials said unproductive farms and government property had been occupied over the last few days because President Lula had failed to take any concrete action to carry out land reform since taking up office in January.

They said the present protests were only the beginning of a bigger campaign of invasions starting next month.

The wait-and-see period is coming to an end Joao Paulo Rodrigues MST leader

But the Brazilian Agrarian Development Minister, Miguel Rossetto, criticised the protesters, saying the government was working towards a peaceful process of land re-distribution.

President Lula's Workers Party has been a traditional ally of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST).

More of the same

The truce was declared on 1 January to coincide with inauguration of the first left-wing Brazilian president for 40 years.

But last week, farm workers resumed their occupation of public and private property in five Brazilian states.

The latest took place on Wednesday when about 500 women and 100 children set up tents at the headquarters of the Agrarian Reform Institute (Incra) in the Goias state capital Goiania, 200 km (125 miles) from Brasilia.

Lula is a long-time supporter of the MST

"We have waited long enough for the new government to take concrete action in favour of agrarian reform," Joao Paulo Rodrigues, an MST leader said. "The wait-and-see period is coming to an end."

Mr Rodrigues said the invasions were only a prelude for nationwide protests in April.

President Lula's government has called on the protesters to end their practice of land seizures.

"It's legitimate to exert pressure, but we do not accept invasions of public buildings or the occupation of productive rural lands," said Workers Party president Jose Genoino.

The MST was created in 1985 to keep pressure on the government to speed up its land reform programme.

They say occupying unproductive farms is the only way to push the government to carry out land reform in Brazil.

Correspondents say land distribution in Brazil is among the most uneven in the world, with 20% of the population owning 90% of farmland and the poorest 40% owning just 1% of the land.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 03.07.03, 1:29 PM ET By Susan Schneider NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) - Brazilian sovereign bonds held steady on Friday after this week's weighty 3 percent jump, as investors remained sanguine about the new government's economic policies, but hesitated to take big positions ahead of the weekend. Brazil's portion of J.P. Morgan's Emerging Market Bond Index Plus gained 0.26 percent in terms of daily returns as the benchmark C bond <BRAZILC=RR> lost 0.125 points to 77.125 bid. With Brazil comprising a weighty one-fifth share of the EMBI- Plus, its scant movement kept the broader market little changed on the day. The horizontal day for market bellwether Brazil came as investors digested a grim U.S. employment report and took a breather from a debt rally fueled by hopes Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva can stitch together support to overhaul the nation's pension and tax regimes. "We saw a little bit of reaction today from the economic number out of the U.S. There was a little bit of selling. But in general, the tone is still strong, everyone believes the whole Brazil story," said an emerging debt trader. The U.S. Labor Department said on Friday that the economy suffered its worst jobs drop since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, with a 308,000 non-farm payrolls drop in February. The plunge came as worries about a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq prompted caution in hiring. Yet Brazil has largely shrugged off global jitters about the economic fallout of a conflict in Iraq as investors take heart from Lula's reform efforts, which analysts say are needed to shore up the nation's financial health. The country's bonds have surged nearly 17 percent so far this year. Friday's performance extended the trend as the market made little movement after U.S. President George W. Bush said he was ready to go to war even if the United Nations Security Council failed to authorize the use of force against Iraq. Emerging debt also looked past the Friday address of chief U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, said traders. Blix criticized the rate at which Iraq has provided documents on banned weapons, but said there had been some acceleration in Iraq's efforts to disarm since January. "The main thing driving Brazil now is that the opposition jumped on the side of reform. That's what (former president Fernando Henrique) Cardoso tried to do for years, so if they get the politics to agree that something needs to be done on social security and tax reform, I think we'll continue to grind higher," the traded added. While Brazil's share of the EMBI-Plus was largely neutral on the day, traders said the country's bonds saw a touch of profit taking as investors locked in recent gains. "The market is looking heavy. I think there are some people trying to take advantage of this rally to lighten some positions," said another emerging debt trader. Brazil's Par bond <BRAPAR=RR>, for example, shed 0.75 points to 71 bid in midday trading and its DCB bond <BRADCB=RR> shed 0.25 points to 63.75 bid. Turkey's bonds, meanwhile, traded a tad higher as investors continued to hope parliament will reconsider last week's rejection of a U.S. request to use Turkish territory as a base for an Iraqi invasion. Turkey's share of the EMBI-Plus notched 0.28 percent higher on the day, aided by a 0.25 point increase in the benchmark dollar bond <TRGLB30=RR> to 103.5 percent of face value. The nation's bonds veered sharply lower on Monday after the parliament move, which raised concerns the nation's fragile economy would be pummeled by a war without the promise of billions of dollars in U.S. aid. But the tone has improved in recent days as investors eye clues the government may make a second attempt to pass a resolution allowing the stationing of U.S. troops. Sources in Washington said late on Thursday that Turkey could get direct U.S. loans rather than loan guarantees if it grants U.S. troops access to its bases.

reuters.com Fri March 7, 2003 11:41 AM ET By Robin Emmott

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Vultures circle overhead at Panama City's putrid refuse mountain on the edge of town as droves of half-naked men, women and children roam the garbage dump looking for anything they can eat, drink, use or sell.

As Panama's economy suffers its worst downturn in more than a decade and with unemployment around 18 percent, more penniless people arrive every day to join the hundreds of scavengers who already live and work at the rubbish mountain.

"It's humiliating, but it's a way to survive," says one rubbish collector, who gave his name only as Euclides.

After 3-1/2 years in office, Panama's populist President Mireya Moscoso of the Arnulfista Party, who was voted in on a platform of poverty reduction, is seen as another Latin American leader who failed to live up to promises to help the destitute.

Many Panamanians are disillusioned with the inability of successive governments to reduce the nation's gulf between rich and poor, one of the most pronounced in Latin America.

With campaigning for the next president already under way a full 15 months before elections, Panama's voters are apparently moving to the left, inspired by the recent victory of Brazil's socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, newly elected Lucio Gutierrez of Ecuador and Chile's left-leaning Ricardo Lagos.

"People want change and so the election race has begun very early this time around. There is a real disenchantment with the parties that have run Panama for the past 50 years," said Raul Leis, analyst at political consultancy Ceaspa.

ENTERING THE FRAY

Enter Guillermo Endara of the Liberal Party, a lawyer and former president who is rapidly gaining support among Panama's blue-collar voters.

Coming to the fray as an alternative to the traditional Arnulfista and Partido Revolutionario Democratico (PRD) parties, Endara is promising a Lula-style mix of socialism and wealth redistribution, while still keeping international financial markets happy.

"I've got nothing against prudent fiscal management of the economy. But it is also time we did something for Panama's poor," Endara said at his sea-front apartment in Panama City.

Many voters say the free-market PRD policies of privatizing state-owned companies in the 1990s, when the party was last in power, pushed up the cost of living in Panama and failed to improve the lot of the poor.

The populist Arnulfista Party, formed in the 1940s by former president Arnulfo Arias, is seen as lacking any clear ideology, and is perennially criticized for tailoring its policies for the benefit of Panama's oligarchy.

That point is not lost on Endara.

"The role of the state is to protect the weak. Why in Panama are we always protecting those who are already so strong?," the 66-year-old candidate told Reuters.

WEALTH GAP

More than 1 million Panamanians or 40 percent of the population live in poverty with 25 percent living in extreme poverty and surviving on around $50 a month.

The proportion has barely changed since 1970 despite successful endeavors to make Panama an international transport and financial hub with economic growth as high as 9 percent a year during the 1990s.

Although Panama is classed as a middle-income country, the richest 20 percent of the population earn 60 percent of the country's annual income while the poorest fifth earn just 2 percent, according to United Nations and World Bank studies.

University of Panama professors Ivan Quintero and William Hughes calculate a group of about 80 people, many linked by business and family ties, control around half of the country's annual gross domestic product, some $5.5 billion.

"This means the economically powerful will always be in power no matter who is in government," Quintero and Hughes wrote in their recent study "Who owns Panama?"

Endara, whose support in opinion polls has risen to about 30 percent since announcing his candidacy in January, says he wants to try to break down Panama's oligarchy.

He aims to channel government revenues into education, housing for the poor and support for the agricultural sector, which employs a quarter of Panama's working population.

In line with Lula of Brazil, he is also skeptical about the benefits of an Americas-wide free trade area slated for 2005.

"We've got to protect our industries and the people who work in them,," Endara said

"PANAMA NEEDS A REVOLUTION"

Endara's closest challenger is likely to be Martin Torrijos of the PRD who trails him slightly in opinion polls. Torrijos is son of Omar Torrijos who ruled Panama from 1968 to 1981.

Three Arnulfista contenders including former Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Aleman are expected to compete in a primary to select the party's candidate, and minor parties are also likely to field candidates.

Endara is seen as a credible figure because as president in 1989 to 1994 he rebuilt Panama's trampled economy after the dictatorship of Gen. Manuel Noriega in the 1980s.

Endara won the May 1989 election but was kept from the presidency as the results were annulled by Noriega. Endara was installed as president by the United States in December 1989 after the U.S military invasion to oust Noriega.

Endara aims to revitalize the economy once again if elected. The economy under Moscoso's Arnulfista Party averaged just 1.6 percent growth a year since 1999, compared with 5 percent during the 1990s, according to Finance Ministry data.

But his critics say he will struggle to bring about real change in Panama, where the sight of new sports cars flashing past one-legged beggars is all too familiar.

"Panama needs a revolution to bring change. But the poor are ultimately too disorganized to challenge the oligarchy," says sociologist and political analyst Danilo Toro at the University of Panama.

"I wouldn't vote for any president. They are all crooks that do nothing for the people," says 33-year-old Gabriel as he fills up bags of discarded laundry detergent on Panama City's garbage mountain, which he later hopes to sell.

www.agriculture.com

BRASILIA, Brazil, March 6 (Reuters) - Brazil's new government on Thursday confirmed genetically modified plantings of key crops like soy were illegal but said it would seek legal ways to market what has been planted so far.

"The government considers that, as a result of a control fault by the previous government, there have been plantings of transgenic soy, which represents an illegality," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's spokesman Andre Singer told reporters.

But Singer, who spoke after a government meeting to discuss the issue, said the agriculture sector was facing a social and economic problem with tens of thousands of farmers depending on this year's harvest, part of which is transgenic.

He did not say whether the plan was to sell existing genetically modified crops at home or abroad. Brazil is the world's No. 2 soybean producer and exporter. The decision should at least partly satisfy producers.

Brazil is the last major soybean exporter to still ban GM crops but it has been finding it increasingly difficult to maintain GM-free status as farmers opted in growing numbers for more profitable genetically modified soybeans.

Meanwhile, environmental and consumer groups have been resisting any moves to allow the sale of transgenic products, citing safety concerns.

Harvesting is already well under way in Mato Grosso and Parana, the two main soy producing states, and will soon start in No. 3 Rio Grande do Sul.

Market sources say up to 80 percent of the crop is planted with transgenic beans, although Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues has said recently the state had only eight percent of the transgenic crop.

cc Reuters 03/07/2003 05:36 a.m.CDT