Maverick Brazil governor tries to seize president's farm

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) -- The battle for land reform in Brazil took a bizarre twist on Thursday when the maverick governor of the state that is the focus of land protests sought to seize a farm belonging to the family of the country's president.

Critics of governor Itamar Franco of Minas Gerais state blasted his efforts as a political stunt against his longtime foe, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Franco, himself a former Brazilian president, arrived in Brasilia on Thursday to meet court officials to discuss his argument that the farm, which is within his state, should be turned into public property because it has become a "national symbol" for land reform after peasants threatened to invade it this week.

"The national legal order stipulates the expropriation of private property whenever there is an interest of public use," Franco told reporters on Wednesday when he announced his move.

No stranger to controversy, Franco helped spark a 1999 currency devaluation when his state announced a debt moratorium which accelerated widespread capital flight.

His latest move has met with fierce criticism from supporters of Cardoso, who served for a short-time as Brazil's finance minister under Franco's 1992-94 government.

Franco has long nurtured a much publicized political grudge after Cardoso staged a successful bid for the presidency against Franco in 1994, claiming credit for a new currency plan that tamed runaway inflation.

"Without a doubt 90 percent of this is theatre... Franco's strategy is to stay in the headlines," said Luciano Dias, a political analyst.

Powerful Senate President Antonio Carlos Magalhaes pleaded with Franco to come "to his senses," while Communications Minister Pimenta da Veiga said Franco had "passed all limits."

This week's events started with the decision by the radical Landless Movement (MST) to camp outside the Cardoso farm, threatening to invade it. The government sent the military to guard the farm, some two hours away from Brasilia and just inside the borders of Minas Gerais state.

Franco responded by setting a deadline for the troops to leave, arguing that it was not the responsibility of the military to guard the farm. However, at the same time he appeared uninterested in sending his own state police to do the job. The troops and the peasants remained locked in the standoff at the farm on Thursday, three days after it began.

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