RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Monday, August 30, seven organizations linked to agribusiness released a manifesto in defense of the democratic rule of law and pointed out concerns with “the current challenges to political-institutional harmony and, as a consequence, to economic and social stability” in Brazil.
Some of these organizations were also signatories to a text prepared by the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), whose publication was suspended after criticism from members of the Jair Bolsonaro government.
“On behalf of our sectors, we fulfill our duty to join many other responsible voices, in a call for our leaders to measure up to Brazil and its history, now about to celebrate its bicentennial of Independence,” reads the text signed by ABAG, ABIOVE, ABISOLO, ABRAPALMA, Crop Life Brasil, Ibá and SINDIVEG, entities that represent sectors such as soy, palm oil and the cellulose industry.
In common, these are sectors with a broad relationship with the international market, either through direct consumers, or through access to investors and financiers, and are therefore sensitive to the shocks to the country’s image in the international community, mainly due to issues related to the government’s environmental policies and to the challenges of fighting illegal deforestation.
“In a word, it is freedom that we need – to undertake, to produce and share wealth, to hire and to trade in Brazil and abroad. It is the Democratic State of Law that guarantees us this essential entrepreneurial freedom in a capitalist economy, which is the opposite of radical adventures, strikes and illegal stoppages, of any harmful politicization or partisanship that, far from solving our problems, will certainly aggravate them,” the manifesto reads.
The text points out the serious consequences Brazil is facing by showing itself to the world “as a society permanently tensioned in endless crises or at risk of setbacks and institutional ruptures.”
“Brazil is much bigger and better than the image we have projected to the world. This is costing us dearly and will take time to be reversed.”