Worse yet, the new terms of the loans guarantee that the poor will loose their plots within a few short years. Under the old program, the MST families received a five year grace period before payments began. They could use this period to obtain credit for housing materials, tools, and agricultural supplies. By the time payments began, they were well established and their lands were productive. Under the new Land Bank program, there is no grace period, and thus no way to obtain additional credit.
Payments begin before they can get to their feet.
Instead of a six percent interest rate, they face a new rate of eighteen percent . The more things change the more they stay the same. As the settlers at Rio Novo struggle to pitch their tents in the rain, they recognize that their future is bleak. They had lived on this land for a full year, and the courts had ruled the property eligible for governmental purchase. Yet last May, the police violently expelled the settlers .