Africa-Press – Cape verde. The heirs of the land owned by Armando de Carvalho Silves Ferreira allege the existence of a new “land mafia” in Praia, this time involving the Pedregal Agostinho Alves, near São Filipe, where the Barreto Construction jackhammer is located. Among those targeted are the names of ministers, mayors and politicians, from the MpD and the PAICV. The denouncers held a public demonstration last Thursday, the 20th, against what they consider to be the usurpation of their property.
Heirs of Armando de Carvalho Silves Ferreira, with roots in São Domingos, contacted A NAÇÃO to denounce what they classify as the “new land mafia” in the northern part of Cidade da Praia.
José Filomeno Rodrigues and Luís Frederico, spokespersons for the said heirs, claim that for more than four decades they have been trying to rescue the land left by their ancestor, a large landowner between São Domingos and the city of Praia, who died in 1969.
The central point of the problem involves the 506,444 hectares of land in the area of Pedregal Agostinho Alves, near Achada São Filipe, in which part of it is being “occupied and exploited” by the crusher Barreto Construções and Qualinertes.
“Right now we are seeing industries taking over what is ours and, it seems, the State, through the City Council and even the Government, is colluding with this. The crusher at Construção Barreto, which involves Qualinertes, is on the land of the Silves Ferreira heirs”, assures José Filomeno.
Luís Frederico asks: “How does an investment of this nature, which according to information is financed by the World Bank, manage to enter private land?” In his view, this issue involves “games of political interest”.
The two denouncers accuse the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luís Filipe Tavares, and the former PAICV deputy José Veiga – “Zé Black”, of being linked to the referred companies, classifying them as “merely ‘oranges’ to feed the land mafia in the city of Praia, issues manipulated by politicians”.
To defend their claim, our interviewees claim to have a land register that gives them ownership of the land. They also present a tract of land and topographical survey that involves the areas of the National Stadium, the ITAC, the building of the flying boat, Djéu de São Filipe, and Caboeólica.
Oscar Santos concession and Gilberto Silva’s environmental impact
However, according to what they also told, when contesting Barreto Construções, it denies being on private land, having presented, in its defense, a concession given by the former president of the City Council of Praia (CMP), Óscar Santos.
“The Minister of Agriculture and the Environment, Gilberto Silva, was the one who issued a license from the DNA (National Directorate for the Environment) and in its homologation he placed a caveat that says that the ‘land is in conflict’. Let’s assume that he is also one of the parties involved in the company Qualinertes along with Luís Filipe Tavares and Zé Black”, adds José Filomeno.
Thus, those two citizens consider that “there is a whole scheme set up to take over all the land” and that at this moment “they have already gone around Djeu expanding every day”.
“Entrance” by Olavo Correia
To show that this “war is taking on other proportions” José Filomeno says that the situation has already reached the Deputy Prime Minister, Olavo Correia.
“One Friday, he called asking us to resolve this without involving the media. On a Monday, he called again to find out if the situation had already been resolved and, for a while, it seemed that Barreto wanted to negotiate. But so far, nothing,” claims Filomeno.
CMP is not a card out of the deck
Asked how they have been dealing with this whole situation involving the current CMP, led by Francisco Carvalho, José Filomeno and Luís Frederico respond by saying that there is a matrix that proves that the Chamber has already registered the land in its conservatory.
“Only at the moment, the municipality does not recognize that all the areas in question belong to us”, says one of the complainants, explaining that, because of this, “the current council team is not a card out of the deck».
What is certain is that, playing with caution, Silves Ferreira’s heirs say they went to the competent entity, the National Institute of Land Management (INGT), triggering mechanisms to safeguard their heritage.
“We have a topographic map accredited by this entity whose survey was carried out according to natural landmarks, namely streams, which can be found in the national archive. And the topographer carried out a survey based on this information that shows the deliberation of land”, adds our interviewee, referring that at the moment the survey carried out is at the INGT for approval.
“We entered this Monday, 17th, at the INGT, and we hope to be proven for new approaches with the CMP. From there, they will have no other way out”, says Luís Frederico, referring that the CMP itself enters into this conflict of interest.
“Right now, the land in the vicinity of ITAC is all divided up. We asked why it is, if in other land conflicts, confronting the State itself, the municipality referred that the lands of São Filipe (to the East) confront the lands of Armando Carvalho Silves Ferreira”, he explains the same, stressing that in this situation all “a lot of inconsistency, many games of political interest”.
Evidence burning?
José Filomeno speaks of “land theft scheme, forgery of documents and much more mafias”. For example, “my grandfather died in 1968, but in the documentation that our lawyer had access to, it appears that he has an NIF. This only proves that there was falsification of documents”, he alleges, making another complaint:
“The current city council team says that the matrix certificates that recognize our land may be among those that disappeared in the chamber (proof burning) in the team led by Óscar Santos”.
According to Silves Ferreira’s heirs, “we had contact with the current council team and we were very advanced. But suddenly everything went backwards without us understanding anything”.
“At the time”, adds this complainant, “the cadastral director himself gave one of my cousins a statement recognizing all the hectares of our land, as he wanted to put a jackhammer in that area. The past statement said that where he placed a container to open a jackhammer belongs to the Silves Pereira heirs and that it is within a larger tract that belongs to the same heir”.
And bearing in mind that the idea of this family member was to explore one of the areas where there is the best stone mine, which “Barreto had his eyes on”, there was born the biggest conflict, front man with Barreto Construções.
Demonstration to claim rights
“Tired of seeing the situation drag on, with the consequent loss of assets that they consider to be theirs, the heirs of Armando Silves Ferreira held a demonstration last Thursday morning to express their dissatisfaction with the matter.”
“This time we are united to recover what is rightfully ours”, warns Luís Frederico, for whom “the first battle was going to INGT in search of approval for topographical survey”.
Having a positive response from this entity, they say that they will demand from the CMP a matrix certificate recognizing the entire area that belongs to them. “Later, we will gather the heirs together to decide what position to take with the occupants”, advances Frederico without ruling out the possibility of negotiations with the jackhammer in question, taking into account that “this is a peaceful fight”.
It should be noted that Armando de Carvalho Silves Pereira had more than 40 children and taking into account that the family multiplied only grandchildren pointed out by the heirs most present in this fight, there are at least 16.
Luís Filipe denies being part of the company involved in the conflict
After a complaint made by the Silves Ferreira heirs, A NAÇÃO tried to hear the contradictory statement from those involved.
Via telephone, Luís Filipe Tavares began by refusing “any interview on the subject”, advancing that the newspaper should “contact the company Barreto Construção directly” about the case. Finally, he ended up answering one of our questions stating that he was not part of Qualinertes.
At the headquarters of Barreto Construção, in Achada Santo António, Praia, we were informed that regarding the present land conflict at the jackhammer, we would have to speak directly with José Veiga (Zé Black), one of those responsible for Qualinertes.
Aware of our interest, Veiga did not respond to our calls and did not return until the close of this edition. However, taking into account that the company pointed him out as one of the targets, it is to be concluded that the connection of this former PAICV deputy to Qualinertes and, therefore, to the land conflict with Silves Ferreira
Also on the part of the City Council of Praia we did not have great advances. Here, an official request for an interview was requested via e-mail, which until the close of this edition had not been answered.
For More News And Analysis About Cape verde Follow Africa-Press
