Judge reverts the decision of his colleague and once more orders the eviction of Dandara Squat.

In the afternoon of the last Monday, 8 June 2009, Dandara Squat’s juridical commission was informed that the Judge Tarcísio José Martins Costa reverted the appeal that denied the area’s eviction order. This makes it possible for the approximately one thousand families that live in the area to be evicted by the police.
According to the lawyer and professor of PUC-MG Dr. Fabio Alves dos Santos, the judge’s actions are, at the very least, extravagant, and ambiguous as to many juridical aspects. “Especially as regards the allegation of Aggravation and the very decree issued by Judge Mota e Silva. It seems as though he (Tarcísio) merely ignored it. On the other hand, the decree of reincorporation of property, issued by a first instance judge, was not adequately founded on the Civil Code. Not only as regards the proper jurisdiction, but also regarding the very ownership of Construtora Modelo.”
According to Joviano Mayer, of Brigadas Populares, who coordinates the squat together with MST, there was interference of Construtora Modelo in the decision. “The judge held the process for two months, not even receiving the construction company’s counter-arguments. And now he pronounces a sentence that goes against the one his colleague had given. We were able to prove that there was no ownership of the terrain, which has always been abandoned, but we cannot know what happened behind the curtains during these two months.”
Besides this, according to Joviano, there are problems related to the jurisdictional competence of the process initiated by the construction company. “There is an aggravation of the State Court questioning the jurisdiction of the action, which would annul the demand of Construtora Modelo, but it was also solemnly ignored.” “The Justice of Minas Gerais, conducted under the eyes and the voice of the economic powers, is tearing apart the legal codes, acting to the horror of all good principles of law.”
The Judge Tarcísio José Martins Costa, 67, became a judge of the state of Minas Gerais in 1980, having acted in the area of Childhood and the Youth, actively defending the abandoned youth for many years, avoiding their criminalisation. His decision in the case of Dandara is contrary to his historical trajectory, putting on the streets some 800 children who have not got any place to go to, in a period of financial crisis and unemployment.