Sao Paulo, March 4 (RHC) -- Amid carnival celebrations in Brazil, several groups of protesters belonging to the Landless Peasants Movement (MST) occupied 17 estates in the southeastern province of Sao Paulo.

The action, dubbed the Red Carnival, aims at pressuring the administration of Dilma Rousseff to speed up the process of land leases to campesinos, MST leader José Rainha Júnior noted.

Rainha underlined the movement will soon send a document to Rousseff requesting the implementation of an Agrarian Reform throughout the country.

MST members entered 17 estates east of the anonymous state capital of Sao Paulo and promised to continue carrying out this type of actions until occupying 100 estates with the participation of 3,000 people.

The occupied territories are located in the municipalities of Presidente Prudente, Dracena and Ara Atuba.