The government of Alagoas is considering expropriating the entire Maceio metropolitan region, which has suffered from subsidence caused by decades of rock salt mining by private companies. According to Governor Paulo Dantas himself, the proposal, which is still under consideration, is to expropriate the area currently owned by the petrochemical company Braskem and turn it into a state park.
“We talked with our technicians, with the government team, to expropriate all the area affected by the crime in Braskem and to create a big state park like the Ibirapuero Park in Sao Paulo,” Dantos said during today’s meeting (11 ), in the capital of Alagoas, with state secretaries and representatives of the federal government; city halls in the Maceio Metropolitan Region, as well as residents and businesses in areas affected by subsidence. The meeting took place the day after one of the mines operated by Braskem collapsed.
The meeting, which lasted about four hours, was organized so that state, federal and municipal authorities could “map joint actions” to combat the subsidence, which Dantas said has affected, directly or indirectly, more than 250,000 people. , forcing at least 40,000 people to leave their homes and commercial establishments in five districts (Pineiro, Bom Partu, Mutange, Bebedura and Farol).
Today, in addition to proposing the expropriation of an area already designated as accident-prone and the creation of a park “in memory of Braskem’s victims,” Dantas again defended expanding the area under consideration to include at least three more districts. “Increasing the edges (of the risk map) is fundamental. The neighborhoods of Flexais (Flexal de Cima and de Baixo) as well as Bom Parto and Marquês de Abrantes should be included in this area, which suffered from this absurdity committed by Brasquem”, stated the governor.
Dantas’ proposal was not well received by Alexandre de Moraes Sampaio, the victim representative on the Braskem Task Force (GT) on Crime, created by the state government itself in October this year. The president of the Association of Mining Entrepreneurs and Victims in Maceio Sampaio said he was not consulted beforehand about the proposal. And he criticized the hypothesis of Braskem, after being classified by some organizations and environmentalists as “one of the biggest urban environmental crimes in the world”, still receiving compensation from the state for the areas from which it expelled its victims.
“I was not involved in (the preparation of) the plan (which began to be discussed today, during the meeting in which Dantas raised the possibility of expropriating the territory), and therefore I do not feel comfortable supporting, on behalf of the victims, the proposed expropriation of territory that should not even have been to be handed over to Braskem,” Sampaio said, before questioning the sums the company paid in compensation to families who lived in the now closed area and threatened to leave GT. “Since the (state) government has not discussed this with us, in the same way that the municipal government has not discussed this, at any time, I feel obliged to publicly withdraw my participation in GT in order not to support something that I was not invited to discuss by name of civil society”.
After the intervention of Sampaio, the state attorney general, Samia Suruagui do Amaral Pacheco, added that the state government has already filed a lawsuit to try to guarantee the owners of the affected residential and commercial properties the maintenance of the property, even if they have already signed agreements with the company and received some amount that will be is considered moral compensation for the losses incurred. According to Sami, expropriation of the territory by the state would be the second option if the courts do not decide in favor of the victims.
“Braskem is obliged to return (the territory) to the victims, because no one can benefit from their own debauchery,” the prosecutor said. “The question of expropriation would be a way of trying to reduce the damage (as) it would be a reward for Braskem for causing damage and leaving (keeping) the property of the victims or the municipalities,” Samia added.
Federal MP Rafael Brita (MDB-AL), who is in favor of Governor Paulo Dantas’ proposal and was present at the meeting, supported the prosecutor’s speech. “In my opinion, Braskem has not yet compensated the family or the victims. The company bought people’s property. This is evident in the agreements she signed with everyone, including my father, who left his home as a victim of Braskem’s crime. There are three very clear clauses in the contract he signed that ownership of the property immediately transfers to Braskem’s assets. And so far there is nothing in the legislation that prevents the company from getting economic benefit from it in 20-30 years. (Therefore) if the court does not win the case (on the return of the property (to the former owners), then the state should expropriate this territory for an insignificant, symbolic price, so that a park can be created there.”
According to Braskem, since 2018, when the first cracks were discovered in buildings and streets, indicating that the mining of rock salt has left huge caves underground in the surroundings of Maceio, residents and traders of around 14,500 properties have been included in financial compensation and the Resettlement Support Program, in accordance with the agreement signed by the company with the Federal Ministry of Public Affairs (MPF); Ministry of State of Alagoas (MP-AL); Office of the Public Defender of the Union and Office of the Public Defender of Alagoas. In total, about 40,000 people were resettled as a precaution.
Following the final shutdown of rock salt mining in May 2019, the company signed a second agreement with federal and state lawmakers in December 2020, which provides for comprehensive repair, mitigation and compensation actions. The company claims to have already paid 4.4 billion reais in compensation out of a total of 19,000 proposals submitted by residents and merchants, which Braskem says represents 99.8% of the total.