Throughout rural Brazil tensions are rising between landowners and members of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) as privately owned property, considered unproductive by the MST, continues to be seized for redistribution to landless families. This year 103 forceful invasions have occurred. At least 60,000 families throughout rural Brazil are waiting for land, but few ranchers are willing to abandon their property, forming militias to defend their land. President Lula da Silva has publicly stated he is committed to agrarian reform and has already redistributed 583,000 acres of unproductive land, but MST members are not satisfied with the pace of reform.
