O negócio da grilagem no mercado paralelo da Justiça: Operação Faroeste e formação da propriedade agrária no Cerrado baiano

Abstract

This research analyzes the formation of agrarian property in the Cerrado region of Bahia, focusing on the dynamics of land grabbing and the role of the Judiciary. In recent decades, the western region of Bahia has consolidated itself as one of the main agricultural frontiers in the country, attracting intense flows of national and international capital to agribusiness. This territorial expansion has historically been marked by a land tenure structure forged under the aegis of State Law No. 3,442 of 1975, popularly known as the "Land Grabbing Law," which allowed the formalization of private property titles based on weak or fraudulent documents. This scenario fostered an environment of systematic expropriation of traditional peoples and communities, squatters, and peasants, generating intense agrarian conflicts over land, water, and labor. Physical and legal disputes over land have led to successive investigations since the 1970s, culminating in Operation Faroeste, launched by the Federal Police in 2019, which pointed to a pattern of systemic corruption involving the sale of judicial decisions to legitimize illegal rural property ownership. In this context, this study aims to understand the process of land ownership formation in the Cerrado region of Bahia through the legalization of land grabbing, which is achieved through the direct actions of judges and justices of the Court of Justice of the state of Bahia. Methodologically, this thesis is an applied and empirical research in Law, based on the dialectical scientific method and adopting the case study as its main methodological procedure. To achieve the specific objectives established, multiple technical instruments were used for data collection, such as a systematic literature review; a survey of agrarian conflicts documented by the Pastoral Land Commission between 1994 and 2014; clippings of journalistic news about Operation Faroeste published between 2019 and 2026; and documentary research in primary sources, such as complaints from the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office and judicial decisions within the scope of the Superior Court of Justice. Considering the methodological choice for qualitative, inter- and transdisciplinary analysis, the thesis also delved into the judicial records related to the former São José Farm, located in the Municipality of Formosa do Rio Preto. This framework allowed us to conclude that, in Western Bahia, the judicial function was transformed into a commodity widely traded in the "parallel market of Justice" to legitimize illegal land appropriations, especially through judicial decisions that created a "fabricated legal truth", privileging financial assets over agrarian life and potentiating violence, coercion, and expropriations. Thus, the State apparatus was illegitimately used to subordinate the possession and social function of land to documentary/formal ownership and to prioritize a civil-business understanding of the agrarian question. Furthermore, land grabbing proved to be a structuring element in the formation of agrarian property in that region, sometimes operating outside the law and, at other times, "within" it, so that it not only compromises the credibility of the law but also undermines its capacity to promote social justice in the countryside.