SUDENE'S "IRRIGATION LAW" (1959): EXPROPRIATION AND THE LAND ISSUE IN THE NORTHEAST

Abstract

The "Irrigation Law" was the first instrument of legislative regulation proposed by the Operation Northeast, in 1959, and represents the genesis of the confrontation of the agrarian question by Sudene. The debate and approval of this project by the Deliberative Council of Codeno, the agency that preceded Sudene, exposes the political disputes around the possibility of land expropriation, opposing the cotton-livestock elites from Ceará linked to DNOCS to the Sudene project. This paper analyzes the formulation of the "Irrigation Law" (PL no 882/1959) from the minutes of the Deliberative Council, observing its antecedents, the coalition between northeastern governors, the Army, industrial entrepreneurs, the Catholic Church and DNOCS technicians, as well as the reaction from Ceará and the legislative debate in the years 1959 and 1960 that hindered its approval. The proposal for expropriation of irrigated areas with public funding, despite being historic in the region and being a moderate agrarian reform project in its extension, exposes the land issue latent to the project and its consequent impediment.