CONCLUSION

Brazil is one of the few countries truly capable of creating millions of jobs in rural areas. It can do so by extending its agricultural frontiers, by introducing more modern technology and by taking advantage of its expanding consumer market, especially since the introduction of the Real stabilization plan. Moreover, it has the wherewithal to undertake a genuine agrarian reform program.

A clear majority of the public supports a revision of the country's landownership structure, as well as an acceleration of rural resettlements. The government is determined to fulfill, as it has been doing, its resettlement goals and to insure that the resettled individuals have enough support to become truly productive farmers.

The financial resources expended on agrarian reform have been increased. The legal barriers have been eliminated. A series of new laws, some already passed and others soon to be adopted, will facilitate the campaign against violence and impunity.

Activist social movements have contributed decisively to mobilizing society in support of greater justice in the countryside.

Conditions seem ripe for correcting the unjust structures and relationships inherited from the colonial era. A democratic government has the obligation to prioritize measures that reduce exclusion. It must promote social justice. However, being democratic, it must also work within the parameters of the law. Disrespect for the law, and the traditional acceptance of this disrespect, explains, though it cannot justify, the violence and the repeated human rights violations in the countryside.

The land problem, which is as old as the country itself, cannot be resolved during the term of a single government. Perhaps it can be resolved during one generation. But to complete a long march, one must take the first step. The Fernando Henrique Cardoso government has already taken this first step.