Raised in a rural settlement, Rosa Amorim represents a generational shift for the MST as popular movements expand into institutional governance.

Rosa Amorim became the first woman elected to Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies on October 4, representing the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST).

RELATED: Brazil’s MST Wins Four Deputy, Four State Assembly Seats

On behalf of Pernambuco under the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT), Amorim secured 144,101 votes, 2.74 percent of the valid votes in her state.

Amorim’s election marks a shift in the MST’s traditional approach, centered on grassroots organizing and direct action, toward a presence in the country’s federal legislative assembly. Securing eight seats in the legislature- four federal deputies and four state deputies– is a triumph for the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST).

This transition maintains an evolving strategy within social movements in Brazil. By entering the federal legislature, Amorim joins a growing group of working-class representatives who seek to directly influence public policy on land reform, food security, and social rights.

From Normandia Settlement to Student Activism

Raised in the Normandia Settlement (Assentamento Normandia), Rosa Amorim came from a rural region of Caruaru, Pernambuco. As a child of first-generation agrarian reform beneficiaries in the Normandia Settlement, she connected directly to community programs and cooperative land use developed by rural worker organizations.

During her youth, Amorim belonged to the child movement known as Sem Terrinha. She took part in educational and cultural activities organized inside the settlement.

Amorim later expanded her activism into student organizations and youth movements. She joined the Popular Youth Uprising (Levante Popular da Juventude) and enrolled at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) to study theater. She also served as the Cultural Director of the National Union of Students (União Nacional dos Estudantes – UNE) during her university years. 

At age 25, Amorim entered institutional politics by winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco (ALEPE) with 42,632 votes. As an Afro-descendant, lesbian woman from a rural background, she combines advocacy for small-scale agriculture with support for racial equality, women’s rights, and LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

While Amorim served in the state legislature, she focused on proposals regarding food security, public funding for culture, and the state’s Racial Equality Statute. Now, Amorim 2026 election to the federal Chamber of Deputies expands these legislative priorities to a national level.

The Institutional Strategy

The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) was founded in 1984 during the final years of Brazil’s civic-military dictatorship. The Movement emerged from local land struggles involving peasant families, rural trade unions, and Christian base communities influenced by Liberation Theology.

Over four decades, the MST has become one of Latin America’s largest social movements, organizing landless families to occupy unproductive rural properties as guaranteed under the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, which Article 5 says that “Property shall fulfill its social function.”

Since its inception, the Brazilian Movement has established roughly 160 agricultural cooperatives, 120 agro-industrial processing units, and hundreds of local associations across Brazil. MST settlements produce organic food, including rice. These cooperatives are the largest organic rice producers, with 300 and 500 settled families cultivating this crop in Latin America.

Throughout most of its history, the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) focused primarily on direct grassroots action, mass marches, and land occupations rather than formal electoral participation.

However, in recent election cycles, the MST has expanded into formal politics. This institutional strategy, described by its leaders as occupying legislative spaces, aims to create a direct parliamentary voice for rural working-class communities.

Elected representatives from the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement serve to counter legislative proposals from the agribusiness caucus, secure public investments for small-scale family farming, and safeguard rural settlements from land grabbing and deregulation.

Campaign Strategy and Legislative Platform

Rosa Amorim’s federal campaign relied on grassroots organizing, community networks, and institutional backing from political coalitions.

Running under the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT) banner in Pernambuco, Amorim campaign brought together rural worker associations, student organizations, cultural collectives, and trade unions.

Amorim platform connected the demands of rural settlements with urban working-class needs, framing agrarian reform as an essential mechanism to guarantee affordable, healthy food for urban populations.

A central element of this connection was the Solidarity Hands (Mãos Solidárias) initiative, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic in Pernambuco. The project distributed thousands of tons of agroecological food and prepared meals from Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) settlements to vulnerable families in urban areas like Recife. This campaign demonstrated the practical link between rural production and urban food security, establishing a strong base of support among both rural and urban voters.

Amorim’s legislative agenda in the Chamber of Deputies focuses on three primary policy areas:

First, expanding public support for smallholder family farming and agroecology. This includes strengthening federal initiatives such as the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), which mandate that public institutions purchase food directly from small-scale farmers.

Second, advancing social rights and human rights protections. Building on Amorim work in the Pernambuco state legislature, she advocates for national legislation on racial equality, gender rights, and protections for LGBTQIA+ populations, while opposing the privatization of public services and social programs.

Third, securing land rights and rural infrastructure. Rosa Amorim platform emphasizes the titling of agrarian reform settlements, public investment in rural education and healthcare, and environmental conservation through sustainable agricultural practices.

Challenges in the Federal Arena

In the Chamber of Deputies, Rosa Amorim will operate within a political environment where agribusiness interests hold substantial political and numerical influence. The Parliamentary Agricultural Front (Frente Parlamentar da Agropecuária – FPA), commonly known as the “bancada ruralista” (agribusiness caucus), represents hundreds of federal deputies and senators across various political parties.

This Agricultural Front consistently advocates policies that support large-scale commercial agriculture, land regularization benefiting major landowners, and the easing of environmental regulations.

Working within this environment presents several structural and political obstacles for landless representatives. A challenge is the ongoing attempts to criminalize social movements through legislative inquiries, such as Parliamentary Committees of Investigation (Comissões Parlamentares de Inquérito – CPI) targeting the MST.

These investigative bodies have historically sought to restrict public funding for agrarian reform initiatives, limit land access, and frame peasant land occupations as illegal activities rather than constitutional claims to land democracy.

Furthermore, female, Afro-descendant, and LGBTQIA+ legislators from rural backgrounds often face heightened hostility and political violence within institutional spaces.

These pressures require strategic coalition-building with other left-wing and progressive caucuses, civil society organizations, and international human rights networks to defend existing social rights and advance new legislative proposals.

A Seat for the Land

The election of Rosa Amorim to the Chamber of Deputies reflects a broader political evolution within Brazil’s agrarian reform movement. By establishing an official legislative presence in Brasília, the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement -MST expands its strategy from grassroots land occupations and rural community development to direct participation in national policy formulation.

Amorim’s legislative role complements direct action with institutional advocacy. Her position in the federal legislature provides a platform to defend smallholder agriculture, promote agroecological farming, and challenge the concentration of land ownership in Brazil.

Sources: TeleSUR – Brasil de Fato – SBT – Folha de S. Paulo – O Globo – O Estado de S. Paulo – UOL – Radio CBN – Radio O Globo – ALBA Movimiento – La Radio del Sur

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