巴西属于世界上农业生产最具竞争力的国家，但随着土地分配矛盾日趋激化，农业土地改革运动的力量不断壮大。11月25日，8千多名失去土地的抗议者包围了巴西中央银行，要求政府为加速土地改革提供更多的经济支持，否则明年他们将为争夺属于自己的土地而拿起武器。外电报道如下：More than 8,000 Brazilian landless activists¹ surrounded the central bank on Thursday and threatened a big fight over land next year unless they get more public money to speed up land reform.

Joao Pedro Stedile, a leader of the radical² leftist Landless Workers Movement, said peasants could stage more land occupations if Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva does not earmark more funds³ to expropriate and redistribute unused farmland, as the Brazilian constitution demands.

Lula, Brazil's first working class president, pledged⁴ to settle 400,000 families -- or around 1.6 million people -- during his four-year term. He has only created plots for 106,000 families nearly two years into office.

Earmark的本义是“为牲畜耳部打上耳号，标上记号”，这里表示“拨款；指定（款项的）特殊用途”，例如：1000 dollars is earmarked to buy books for the library.（特别拨款一千美元为图书馆购书。）This sum of money is earmarked for our research.（这笔款子是专门拨给我们作研究用的。）

据悉，幅员辽阔的巴西总人口为1.8亿，其中土著人口30万。在战后的大规模开发中，土著人成了牺牲品，不仅政治上被逐渐边缘化，生存的空间也越来越小。失去土地的农民和大庄园主之间的矛盾日益激化，抢占土地、武装冲突和自杀事件层出不穷。