 Hello and welcome to the Real News Network and NewsClick. After losing four consecutive elections since 2002, Brazil's right-wing politicians are now back in power. In September 2016, they engineered a constitutional coup that removed President Dilma Rousseff from power. In today we speak with Marco Brazilian Landless Workers Movement to get a sense of what has happened in the last five months since the coup. Marco, welcome to the program. Since Michel Temer has assumed power in September 2016, there are reports that he's managed in such a short while to engineer a sharp right turn in Brazilian politics. Can you give us a snapshot of what has happened in the last five months in Brazil? So actually, first of all, about the speed of all the reforms and the acceptor president, of course this has to do with the fact that the right-wing knows that they cannot win elections with this kind of program. So they have to rush to be able to implement the reforms that they think are the best now for the country. But actually what's happening is it's like a total destruction of the little advance or progress that we had in terms of social welfare and even economics in the country in the last 10, 12 years with the Workers' Party government. So for instance, they are now approving label reforms that will make possible for a worker to work for even 12 hours a day or 60 hours a week. Just to make sure, the current law is eight hours maximum and 44 maximum a week. In terms of the pensions, also they are now with the project in the Congress trying to force people to work at least for 49 years in order to be able to retire with 100 percent of the salary, which makes absolutely impossible for anyone. Just so you to know, right now, if this law was already working, only 2 percent of the workers retire after 49 years of work. In terms of investments in health and education, they have just approved also in the Congress one law that even the IMF criticized saying that they are not going, they are going to freeze all the investments for 20 years. I mean, of course, the population will grow a lot in 20 years, but there's not going to be more investments in health and education. And there are reports that along with the Greater Reform Ministry, the Human Rights Ministry has also been shut down. They tried to shut down the Culture Ministry, but there was a few opposition to that. But in terms of representing the Brazilian landless workers movement, one of the largest social movements and which has a strong program of a Greater Reform Food Sovereignty, what has been the response of the progressive movements in challenging some of these regressive steps? We are doing what we know, struggle, mobilizing people. But it's true that not only MST, but I would say the left forces as a whole, we are not being able to mobilize enough people right now in order to stop the implementation of the reforms of the government. This has to do with many very complex issues, but it's true that in the last 20 years, most of the left kind of detached from the grassroots organizing. So I guess now it's reflecting this incapacity of having huge mobilizations against the neoliberal agenda that's been forced again to the population. But I would say MST, I mean we're doing a lot of mobilizations, occupations as always, blocking roads. We are also part of a so-called Frente Brasil Popular, popular people's Brazil front, which is like a sort of a platform of many social movements, people's movements, unions, even parties, PT is also part of this front, that it's an effort of the whole progressive forces of the country to counter-react the attacks of the right. And ironically, the current president, Temer, also faces serious charges of corruption. I want you to give us a sense of how is the judiciary responding to ongoing cases of corruption against the right wing, and how the judiciary is being manipulated? That's actually, I would say, one of the most important and gravest things that's going on in the country right now. Looks like the elite of Latin America at least, they have realized, they have learned with their history, and they have realized that a military coup, as we experienced so many times in our continent in the last 40, 50 years, is no longer so efficient. So what they have done, they have started these experiences on Honduras, then they have done this in Paraguay, in the last with Lugo, in the last years, Zalaya in Honduras, and now they have done this with the Juma. They are using the judiciary as the main weapon to organize and realize coup d'etat. What's going on in the country right now is that we have a part of the judiciary, very political active, I would say, and very selective in terms of how to deal with the announcements of corruption. When it's up to the Workers' Party, everybody is, I mean, first also, excuse me, it's also important to underline the role of the media, because it's the judiciary and the media working together to create also a sense of of political corruption and who was supposed to be punished. So for instance, every time that you have one announcement against Lula or Dilma, this is in the headlines of every newspaper. This is like minutes and minutes in the television and the news in television. And you have, right after you have investigations started, but at the end of the day after at least two years of a huge investigation, there's no evidence at all against Dilma or Lula in any one of these so-called corruption accusations. But at the other side, with the right wing, President Temer, for instance, was already quoted 43 times in just one of the plea bargains that are being now revealed. So this is being clear right now for us that judiciary is now the center of the right wing operations in the country. I want to focus on Jose Seja, the foreign minister. You've spoken about the challenges within the state of Brazil, but I want to take you back to 2003 when Lula was instrumental in stopping the free trade area of the Americas. And then you had an attempt with other progressive governments to further regional integration. But now with Seja has foreign minister, you see a far more sort of pronounced free trade agenda and also undermining Brazil's role in the BRICS. Can you speak a bit about the foreign policy changes under Temer and Seja? So yeah, Jose Seja, it's a very critical figure in the last years to the right wing. We have just found out by a document, liquid document, that Seja has been working or operating to U.S. interests in Brazil. This is public. So as minister of foreign relations of Temer government, he already is establishing a very clear agenda. First, to re-establish the subservient relations with the U.S., something that clearly the WCAG has broken this tradition in Brazilian politics. Seja was actually, if Seja lost Lula in 2002, but if he won it, the FTAA would be signed in the first day of government. So now they are doing this. They are undermining Mercosur, which is the South American platform, the trade agreements, and also political agreements. He's undermining that. He's undermining the role of Brazilian BRICS. Actually, as you know, he didn't even know what BRICS was. This is like a famous video of him. And I mean to sort of conclude, you've spoken about the response of social movements. I want you to sort of reflect a bit about the more institutional left party response to the crisis that you see in Brazil, not just in Brazil, but across Latin America now, where you have an upsurge of right-wing parties. And there was a certain level of criticism towards the workers' party. But you've seen splinters. You've seen some politicians form more left parties. But in terms of, in the next elections, a more institutional response, which is a more radical progressive socialist platform on which the left can fight elections, can you sort of give us this? I think so. I believe so, not only the workers' party, because I guess this is a task for the whole left of the country, for the people's movements, to the unions, to the other left parties, not only the workers' party. But one thing that it's interesting right now, you know that the main fear of the right-wing right now, it's Lula, still Lula, because right now he seems to be the only person able to defeat the right in 2018. Just so you know, in the polls, all the polls, he is by far the first place, 35% of the intensions of votes, and the second one has 18% or even less. We still don't know what's going to happen. There's many speculations that, I mean, workers' party should not run alone, but as part of a front of parties and movements, I think this is maybe is more likely to happen, but Lula is still the name, and it's not by chance that the main tactics of right-wing right now regarding the next elections is to put Lula in jail. Every day they try, they think about one strategy, a different strategy, but they know that if Lula is not in jail, it's very hard to defeat him in the next elections. But one thing, of course, it's having Lula. The other thing is the program. I think this is the main task for the left right now. So it's clearly very critical juncture in Brazilian politics and sort of very interesting and challenging times for the left, and thank you very much for speaking with us.