REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF NORTHEASTERN

Ugeda, Luiz

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Article • Mercator (Fortaleza) 19 • 2020 • https://doi.org/10.4215/rm2020.e19016 copy

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF NORTHEASTERN

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

The Northeast is a concept that is crystallized in the unconscious of the Brazilian population, designating a geographically located portion of the national territory. This article proposes to revisit the construction of this concept from a political and legal perspective, showing the choices made in each historical period to provide the intended regional development through institutions such as Chesf, DNOCS, and Codevasf, among others. The conclusion points to possible ways to reinvent the region, mainly due to the concept of the Matopiba. The study follows Geolegal methodology by using a historiographical base of the legal facts (Brazilian legislation) to produce a geographical value (regional development of the Northeast).

Keywords:
Codevasf; DNOCS; São Francisco River; Drought Polygon; Northeast Region; Legal Geography

Standard	Object	Main geographical effects
Decree-Law no. 8,031, of 10/3/1945	Created the São Francisco River Hydro-Electric Company (Chesf).¹ 1 There are records of the passage of the navigator Américo Vespúcio, who gave his name to the continent, along the São Francisco River in 1501.In 1576, Pero de Magalhães Gândavo, when exploring the river, described the virtues of this geographical accident. In 1587, Gabriel Soares de Souza (SOARES DE SOUZA, 1587) a Portuguese businessman who was looking for wealth in the northeastern sertão during the period of the Iberian Union, reported that it was possible to navigate the river in caravels as far as the waterfall, which “is made of living stone”. There was a lot of brazilwood, which could be carried with little effort. In 1649, the waterfall was depicted by the Dutch painter Frans Post. Dom Pedro II was the first authority to visit the site, on 10/20/1859, a moment that was reported by Castro Alves. The Bahian poet and lawyer even wrote several poems about the waterfall, the most famous being A Cachoeira de Paulo Afonso, an integral part of the work Os escravos, in 1876 (ALVES, 1944, p. 219).	The electric energy produced was intended to supply high voltage electricity to public service concessionaires in the area, within a circumference of four hundred and fifty km (450) in radius (art.2). It created Chesf's preemptive right to exploit the hydroelectric power required in the São Francisco River basin (art.11, sole paragraph).
Decree-Law no. 8,486 of 12/28/1945	Created the National Department of Drought Prevention Works - DNOCS	It respected the geography created by the 1934 Federal Constitution and subdivided the area into operating districts (art.4), with the First District covering the States of Ceará and Piauí; the Second District, the States of Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte; the Third District, the States of Pernambuco and Alagoas; and the Fourth District, the States of Bahia and Sergipe.
Federal Constitution of 1946	Set a 20-year deadline to finalize the use of the São Francisco River.	Article 29 of the Transitional Constitutional Provisions Act, created an obligation, that within twenty years, a plan be created and executed to fully exploit the economic possibilities of the São Francisco River and its tributaries, with an annual investment of not less than one percent of its tax income.
Law no. 541 of 12/15/1948	Created the São Francisco Valley Commission (CVSF).	Created the general plan for the use of the São Francisco Valley, which aimed to regularize the river courses, distribute its waters better, use its hydroelectric potential, promote industry and agriculture, develop irrigation, modernize its transport, increase immigration and colonization, and assist in the exploitation of its wealth (art.7).
Law no. 1,649, of 7/19/1952	Created the Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB).	The BNB would have a branch in each state in the Drought Polygon ( art.3 §1) and was forbidden to grant loans to individuals or legal entities that were not established in the Drought Polygon or that did not have activities in the area (art.24).
Law no. 3,692, 12/15/1959	Created the Superintendency for the Development of the Northeast (Sudene).	The first official definition of the concept of the Northeast as we know it today.

Standard	Object	Main effects for Geography
Law no. 4,869 of 01/ 12/1965	Restructured the Northeast Development Superintendence (Sudene).	Established Sudene's central competence to organize northeastern regional development.
Decree-Law no. 292, 2/28/1967	Created the São Francisco Valley Superintendence (Suvale).	As an autarchy linked to the Ministry of National Integration, it extinguished the CVSF and distanced this structure from the electricity sector and stipulated that it must adopt Sudene's guidelines.
Decree-Law no. 161, 2/13/1967	Created the IBGE Foundation and extinguished the municipal IBGE.	Removed the IBGE's capacity to regulate the territory, instead, it was only responsible for making economic, social, and statistical surveys.
Decree-Law no. 243, 2/28/1967	Established the National Cartographic System (SCN) and the Cartography Commission (Cocar).	Created the National Cartographic Policy, the Cartography Commission (Cocar), the National Statistics Plan, and the National Geography Plan.
Decree no. 67,647, of 11/23/1970	Established the current Regional Division of Brazil for statistical purposes.	It established the current composition of the Brazilian Northeast, with the states of Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia.
Law no. 6,088, of 7/16/1974	Created the Vale do São Francisco Development Company (Codevasf).	It succeeded Suvale and obtained a specific geographical area, managing the São Francisco basin to the south and maintaining DNOCS' management of the north. See Decree nº 74.744, from 1974 and Decree No. 3,604, of 2000.
Decree no. 74,794, of 10/30/1974	Provides for the creation of the Program for the Development of Integrated Areas of the Northeast (POLONORDESTE).	It promoted the development and modernization of the economy in areas considered to be priorities, due to the potential they had with an integrated approach to rural development.

Standard	Object	Main effects for Geography
Decree no. 1,741, of 8/12/1995	Provided for the organization and functioning of the Regional Policy Chamber.	The Regional Policy Chamber, part of the Government Council, aimed to coordinate sectoral policies with regional impact, to reduce inter and intraregional inequalities. Repealed by Decree No. 4,793, dated 7/23/2003.
Decree no. 4,793, of 7/23/2003	Created the Chamber of Policies for National Integration and Regional Development, of the Government Council.	It was an advance compared to prior legislation but focused mainly on the Amazon region and the BR-163 highway. Its effectiveness was low as it did not reach goals like the paving of the BR-163. Repealed by Decree No. 9,810, 2019.
Complementary Law no. 125, of 3/1/2007	Article 43 of the Federal Constitution instituted the Northeast Development Superintendence - Sudene; it established its composition, legal nature, objectives, areas of operation, and action instruments.	It defined its area as all states in the Northeast and municipalities in the north of the state of Minas Gerais. It provided for the creation of a four-year Northeast Regional Development Plan to reduce spatial and interpersonal income inequalities, as well as the Northeast Development Fund, which should ensure resources for this purpose.
Decree no. 6,047, of 2/22/2007	Instituted the National Policy for Regional Development - PNDR.	It brought advances that enabled the creation of Matopiba, based on art.3 §1, which provided that the Ministry of National Integration, through an ordinance, could define territorial limits for Differentiated Mesoregions and other sub-regional spaces. Repealed by Decree No. 9,810, 2019.
Law no. 13,844, 6/18/2019	Established the basic organization of the organs of the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Regional Development.	It conferred ministerial status to Regional Development, encompassing issues related to National Integration and the former Ministry of Cities.
Decree no. 9,810, 5/30/2019	Institutes the National Policy for Regional Development (PNDR).	Created a National Policy to be governed by the Ministry of Regional Development. If, on the one hand, the creation of the Ministry of Regional Development strengthens the Brazilian regional process, on the other hand, its effectiveness has not yet been proven in the sense of producing spatial transformation. It allows operations on a subregional geographic scale corresponding to the territorial profile in PNDR priority areas, established to coordinate state action, to reduce intra-regional inequalities (art.5, II).

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