The Landless Movement and Cuba: An Unbreakable Brotherhood

In a simple ceremony celebrating true friendship—the kind built in shared struggle and hope—First Secretary of the Party's Central Committee and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez awarded the Medal of Friendship to two prominent militants of Brazil's Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), comrades Nivia Regina Da Silva and Marcelo Durao.

Held on Wednesday morning in the beautiful El Sol de América hall of the Palace of the Revolution, the presentation of a medal that pays tribute to solidarity and is granted by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba also honored the struggle of an entire people.

At the presentation of the Medal of Friendship to the MST comrades, proposed by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), it was underscored that the Landless Movement has demonstrated that another world is possible, that the land belongs to those who work it, that food sovereignty is a right, and that internationalist solidarity is the path to achieving it.

The MST is a movement that for more than four decades has been an unstoppable force in the struggle for social justice, agrarian reform, and the sovereignty of peoples, and its actions and militant solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and its people are unconditional and have been present since its very founding.

Attending the tribute were comrades Emilio Lozada García, head of the International Relations Department of the Party's Central Committee, and Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, among other leaders of the Party, State, Government, mass organizations, and institutions. Also participating were Christian Vargas, ambassador of the Republic of Brazil to Cuba, and Marcelo Resende, FAO representative in Cuba.

NIVIA AND MARCELO: SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA A REASON FOR LIVING

"Today we are not only presenting two medals; today we embrace two brothers, two combatants who have made solidarity with Cuba the reason for their lives," stated comrade Fernando González Llort, president of ICAP, during the rationale for the decision to grant this high distinction to the prominent social fighters Nivia Regina Da Silva and Marcelo Durao.

In praise of comrade Nivia, he recalled that she is an agronomist specializing in agroecology and holds a master's degree in agrosystems, a leader in the production and cooperation sector, a member of the National Bureau and the National Coordination of the MST.

A woman—he added—"who has known how to put science at the service of life, and militancy at the service of those who have the least," who has been on the front line of solidarity with Cuba, such as protests against the blockade in front of the U.S. embassy in Brasilia and the consulate in Rio de Janeiro, signature campaigns, the demand for the freedom of the Five, all of which speaks to the fact that we are before "a woman who does not stop at discourse, but acts, fights, and sows."

Of Marcelo, he recalled that he was a member of the state leadership of the movement in Rio de Janeiro, of the National Directorate, and today is part of the National Coordination. But beyond his responsibilities, he has been an unconditional friend of Cuba.

"Marcelo," he noted, "participated in the construction of CLOC Via Campesina, of ALBA Movimientos, in the campaigns against the FTAA, and when the freedom of the Five was a cause that many kept silent about, he took the pencils and drawings of the MST children and turned them into letters, into shouts, into hope."

At the presentation of the Medal of Solidarity, mention was also made of Marcelo and Nivia's participation in recent years in the delivery of donations of dozens of tons of grain and vegetable seeds, agricultural machinery, and medicines for our hospitals.

FRIENDSHIP AND CONTINUITY

In her thanks for receiving the Medal of Friendship, comrade Nivia, in words also shared by Marcelo, underscored that this was "a collective event," that it also belongs to the peasant men and women and to the militants. "This medal represents the collective subject that is the MST," she emphasized.

Receiving it—she explained—"is to seal the continuity of our commitment, our loyalty, and our trust in Cuba." We—she added—are the fruits of this historical relationship between Cuba and the MST, "which always had solidarity and internationalism as their foundation."

Born in the final years of the military dictatorship and officially founded in 1984, this peasant movement has focused its struggle on agrarian reform, the occupation of unproductive lands, and social transformation, always from agroecology and the defense of rural workers' rights.

It currently brings together more than half a million settled and encamped families across 24 states of Brazil and is internationally recognized for its organizational capacity and its commitment to popular education, with the construction of more than 2,000 public schools serving nearly 200,000 people and having already taught more than 100,000 to read and write. Its Florestan Fernández school is one of the most important political training centers in our region.