After a process that lasted 27 years, the Mato Grosso Public Prosecutor’s Office managed to demolish on January 1 a mansion frequented by politicians. The property, located in the bay of Siá Mariana, in Barão de Melgaço (MT), was in an area considered permanent in the Pantanal. New illegally built houses should be targeted, according to the prosecution.
The residence was officially named after Clélio Nogueira, a retiree from Sema (State Secretariat for the Environment). According to lawyer Fernando Biral, who represents Nogueira, the owners of other properties in the area signed the TAC (Conduct Adjustment Term), but his client’s building did not benefit from the same benefit.
According to prosecutor Joelson Campos Maciel, the delay in the demolition was due to the resistance and influence of local politicians, who took the dispute to the Federal Court.
Built in a permanent preservation area, the property used by politicians as a summer home also prevented local fishermen from accessing the bay.
Even with the court’s demolition order, Sinfra-MT (Mato Grosso State Secretariat for Infrastructure) informed that it would be necessary to launch a tender to carry out the service.
To get around the problem, Maciel and prosecutors Ana Luiza Ávila Peterlini and Henrique Schneider requested permission to use the remedy of the Juizado Especial Volante de Cuiabá, which collects environmental fines.
According to Maciel, the so-called “yellow house,” as the mansion is now known, is not the only irregular property in the area. It calculates that, in the bays of Siá Mariana and Chacororé, there are other houses built in a preserved area or with an irregular permit issued by Sema.
“We filed a public civil action when there was a drought problem in the bay of Siá Mariana and Chacororé. It is a general civil action, which covers several issues, among which that of irregular properties on the shores of the bays,” he said. As part of the action, he said, an investigation into the irregularities was requested.
“Sema is responsible for carrying out this investigation into irregular properties and, therefore, it is assumed that she will undertake this.”
Environmental legislation provides some exceptions for the use of permanent preservation areas. Thus, landowners take advantage of this loophole to try to legalize their country or beach houses on paper.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office also plans to investigate the raising of a local road by the State Secretariat for Infrastructure (Sinfra-MT) which leads to summer residences in the bay. Works that took place about a year ago, without a call for tenders, with the justification that they would be used by firefighters to collect water from the bay of Siá Mariana in the event of a fire in the Pantanal.
“I hope that what was done with Clélio today will be done with the other houses, we respect justice, we did not oppose the demolition,” said Fernando Biral, lawyer for the owner of the yellow house.
According to him, the defense even proposed that part of the house be used by Sema. “We understand that in this process justice has not prevailed, the principle of equality has not been respected, the principle that if you treat one person in a certain way, you must treat another person in the same way, who is in the same situation,” he said.
In a note, Sema informed that summer residences are not subject to environmental authorization and that the secretariat’s analysis is limited to the company’s activity. The secretariat also said it had carried out operations, notifications and assessments in the region, but did not know how many properties would be irregular.
“During the licensing process, the company must present all documents proving the activity carried out, and a license will only be issued if all legal requirements are met,” the note said.
Sinfra said it had made improvements to several local roads in the Pantanal to combat fires and that this was not related to the process of demolishing properties in that area.
“The improvements aimed to facilitate the movement of vehicles and trucks between support points, water collection points (such as Sia Mariana Bay) and places affected by fires,” the note said.
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