Most of the Brazilian media and the country’s right wing stood up to defend the interests of the company, after news of the arrest of nine members of the Rural Landless Peasant Movement (MST) who had occupied lands of the company in October, became public.

In turn, Brazil’s largest social movement began a campaign to expose the company has gained power as a result of the illegal use of fiscal lands and that this was possible thanks to the lobby with the politicians.

“We will mobilize our friends around the world to expose the illegal activities of Cutrale to produce juice, which is later sold to Coca Cola”, said MST leader Joao Pedro Stedile a few days ago, during the activities of the World Social Forum.

The conflictive occupation was carried out in a rural area 345 kilometers from Sao Paulo. The military police’s intelligence used footage of four videos to identify the occupants in an investigation called “Orange Operation”.

The images showing a tractor knocking down orange trees, were provided by Rede Globo, the media arm of the Brazilian business sector.

The MST is warning that the whole operation has clear “electoral intentions” as the national elections of Brazil will take place this year, where it will be decided whether the ruling Workers’ Party will stay in office.

The lands of the Capim estate are claimed by the Brazilian state through the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) but Cutrale has filed these requests in court to continue exploiting them.

The MST believes that the lands should be destined to the agrarian reform, one of the outstanding issues of the Workers’ Party administration, they claim.

Amid this conflict, the landless peasants have recalled that in 2003 the magazine Veja exposed the citrus corporation for business carried out in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes.

It also published once again a list of federal representatives who received “donations” from Cutrale for their electoral campaigns.

Meanwhile, the expansion of Cutrale caused – according to MST figures – the disappearance of 280,000 hectares destined to orange production by small and medium farmers. Though these images were not seen on TV.