'The public policy of making access to the land democratic, agrarian reform is a political intervention of the state to decenter the landed-estate structure. According to the Land Statute of 1964, agrarian reform is a set of measures to promote the best distribution of land, with modifications in the system of possession and use in order to satisfy principles of social justice and increased productivity. Today, in Brazil, this concept has been cheapened by the use of improper meanings, which have distorted the principles of the policy. For example; by means of an agreement with the World Bank, the government developed a set of financing policies for the purchase and sale of land, which it has called agrarian reform' (Fernandes, Bernardo Mançano. Pequeno Vocabulário da Luta pela Terra. Unpublished). |