Capital paulista no Araguaia

Abstract

The expansion of the agricultural frontier in Brazil to the Amazon in the second half of the twentieth century occurred in a directed way, privileging the interests of the great capital and leaving aside a population of different ethnic groups already established in the region. The fiscal incentives implemented by the SUDAM, since 1966, favored the expansion of the businesses of families of rural farmers and entrepreneurs in the Center-South of Brazil, mainly in São Paulo, who acquired thousands of hectares of State lands, at derisory prices, mainly in the states cut by the Belém-Brasília and Cuiabá-Porto Velho highways. Among the pioneer projects approved by SUDAM, the largest landholding was the Suiá-Missu S/A Agropecuaria, until then the largest latifundio in Latin America belonging to the Ometto family, resident in the State of São Paulo. The article analyzes the business trajectory of the Ometto family from the interior of São Paulo to the state of Mato Grosso, and the main social and economic effects and impacts of the family business in Mato Grosso.