Macron wants to stop Brazilian agriculture, says MT governor

The governor of Mato Grosso, Mauro Mendes (União Brasil) said this Monday (April 29, 2024) that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, “captured” chief Raoni to speak against the construction of Ferrogrão.

Mendes denied that the railroad project crosses indigenous reserves and that this “myth” would be counted by “experts playing against Brazil and against Brazilian agribusiness” and accused foreign governments of funding these allegations.

“With all due respect to President Macron, but he leaves a meeting with an indigenous leader who is more than 300 km from where he is going to Ferrogrão and at the end of the meeting the chief leaves speaking badly. It was very obvious that he came here with this order to capture an indigenous leader to speak badly about Ferrogrão”, he said in an interview with the program “Roda Viva“, from the TV Cultura.

The governor said that he had already spoken to the indigenous leader and that he would be in favor of building the railway. He stated that there are attempts to implement instruments to “bar” national agribusiness and curb the international competitiveness of the segment.

“The French have great difficulty maintaining their agriculture, which is the basis for subsidies, and that is what is at stake. If the efficiency of an agricultural sector that is already very competitive throughout the world increases, it will be difficult for Americans, and especially the French and other countries in Europe, to compete with Brazil”.

On an official visit to Brazil at the end of March, Macron and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) met with indigenous communities. There, the indigenous leader asked the Brazilian head of state not to approve the construction of the railway.

“President Lula, listen to me. I went up the ramp with you and I want to ask you not to approve the Sinop railway construction project, better known as Ferrogrão. I have always defended that there cannot be deforestation, I cannot accept mining, so, president, I want to ask you again to work so that there is no more deforestation”he declared.

Ferrogrão

At the beginning of March, the Ministries of Indigenous Peoples and Transport reached a definition on how many indigenous peoples should be consulted to update implementation studies for Ferrogrão, a railway that intends to connect the cities of Sinop (MT) and Miritituba ( PA), for the transport of grains in ports in the North region.

The bodies agreed that populations from 16 indigenous lands potentially impacted by the railway should be consulted, respecting the specificities, particularities and diversity of each people’s consultation protocols.

To the Power360, the executive secretary of the Ministry of Transport, George Santoro, said that the definition is a milestone for the advancement of the project. With a firm number of people who need to be consulted, it is possible to create a schedule of hearings that should not be blocked by new demands from the affected people.

The preliminary license is the document that determines that it is possible for a project to have environmental licensing. This is the 1st step in carrying out a definitive study of the railway and evaluating the profitability of the work.

On April 12, the Ministry extended the deadline for the working group studying the viability of the project, without yet reaching any understanding.