red herald
Wave of attacks against peasant encampments in Brazil
Different cases of repression against peasants by goons who have the help of the Military Police (MP) have been reported by the revolutionary newspaper A Nova Democracia. In all cases, the paramilitary forces in service of the latifundium, as goons, have the freedom to shoot the peasants and destroy their homes and lands, protected with total impsunity given by the MP, who have this purpose. We summarize some of the news about it:
Revolutionary Area Renato Nathan
In 2009, the peasants of the Messias region in Alagoas joined the League of Poor Peasants (LCP) in the struggle to conquer the land and destroy the latifundium. As A Nova Democracia reports, through People’s Assemblies it was decided to establish a People’s Court in 2012, in addition to people’s schools or the electrification of the area.
But after years of living and working on the land, even for the benefit of the nearest municipalities, participating in the fairs for the people, the latifundium has launched a new attack, promoting the destruction of the Revolutionary Area Renato Nathan. “My houses, my farms, my crops are all destroyed. All for the decision of a corrupt judge, a thief, who expelled us without the right to do anything”, a peasant stated to the revolutionary newspaper. The cousin of the Defense Minister José Múcio, Eduardo Queiroz Monteiro, is the one who claims the lands where the peasants have lived and worked for 15 years. In total more than 720 families living in the Revolutionary Area organized by the LCP have been affected by this attack.
Apparently, it is not the first time that this judge, José Afrânio Os Santos Oliveira, is clearly positioned in favor of the latifundium, even not considering the laws. “Afrânio has a huge list of accusations of sale of sentences and is recognized as one of the most corrupt of the judicial power of Alagoas”, the peasants say. He was the one who gave the permits so that, protected with armed men, they demolished the houses of the peasants with backhoes, and producers were prohibited from collecting their goods and animals. All this is even more bleeding since it had been promised to the peasants to expropriate the lands to their benefit for October 25.
The LCP states that it will not accept the destruction of homes and of the production of the peasants, and that the mobilization has already begun against the judge’s decision: “In spite of everything, they could not destroy the entire area, they only caused more hate in the heart of the peasants, who will surely know how to answer this cowardly attack (…) they will pay for this cruelty, injustice and breach. Each enemy of the aforementioned people will receive, in due time and to their own extent, the payment that corresponds to it. We will return stronger and more prepared.”
Eviction attempt in Ceará
A war operation was carried out by the Government of Ceará on October 23 using police, backhoes and goons to expel families from a large property in the municipality of Morrinhos. The land, which belongs to the Secretary of Cities of the Government, Zé Albuquerque, was claimed by peasants after years of abandonment.
On September 23, the land re-taking of Poet Colibri, a name given by the peasants, which is located in the Sítio Alegre district, was conducted. The dozens of families are facing the government, the police and the paramilitary forces since then.
Again, as in the Revolutionary Area Renato Nathan, police and goons act together and without a court order against the peasants. Sometimes, the combination of forces is for the MP to escort the goons, with the guarantee that they will act without punishment. In other cases, the MP participates directly in repression.
MP helps latifundium to destroy indigenous plantations
In Guaíra, Paraná, the latifundium has sent its henchmen to poison the plantations of indigenous peasants, everything, again, under the protection of the MP. The events occurred on October 23. This attack breaks with what the judge stipulated: respect the boundaries of the peasants and the landowner is only allowed to approach in the presence of the National Force.
There is an escalation of violence in last weeks. On October 17, a truck and four backhoes tried to invade the community for the benefit of a big landlord who claims to be the owner of the land. Subsequently, rests of desiccant silica gel, toxic when ingested, got into contact with the skin or been inhaled, was found.
The leader of the indigenous peasants, who remains in anonymity, spoke through a newspaper, and affirms that the indigenous people also promise to resist the offensive of the latifundium. “We will die, but we will not go back”, he said.
On the struggle for land in Barro Branco, Brazil
For the past months A Nova Democracia (AND) has been extensively reporting on the sharpening of the struggle for land in Brazil. One of the peaks of this struggle was without doubts the Fierce Battle of Barro Branco, Jaqueira, State of Pernambuco, which took place on September 28. The poor peasantry, lead by the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) as well as supported by people’s students resisted and rejected the attacks by the goons of the latifundium organized in the movement known as “Invasão Zero”1. The latifundium has unleashed a war on the poor peasantry which is increasingly organizing the resistance. In a recent statement, the LCP linked this struggle with the history of the struggle for land in Brazil making very clear that this is not an isolated event or clash but much more: “The fierce resistance of the squatters of Engenho Barro Branco is the continuation of the heroic struggle of the peasants of Santa Elina, Eldorado dos Carajás, of the Guarani, Kaiowas, Tupinambás, Caigangues, Mundurucus, Pataxós and many others, of the Manoel Ribeiro camp and the bloody battles of the peasants of Tiago dos Santos, to cite a few examples from our recent history.”
A student who was injured by a gunshot, Ana Cecília, was interviewed by AND:
The old Brazilian State along with the goons of latifundium have continued their attacks on the peasantry. After this battle, the Military Police (MP) has continued its harassment of the peasants, what has been denounced by the Support Committee to Barro Branco:
Source: Instagram of the Support Committee to Barro Branco
Among other criminal acts, the MP illegally arrested a resident of Barro Branco on October 22. Among the troops who was carrying out this operation, one of the MP’s who was supporting the attack by goons at the Battle of Barro Branco was present. The MP invented an excuse to detain the peasant, to whom also the right to have a lawyer from the ABRAPO was denied. Few hours later the peasant was released since there was a big pressure by the other peasants, the Support Committee and the students.
But this is not preventing the peasants led by the LCP and the students to continue their struggle. After the Battle of Barro Branco a great solidarity was unleashed with the peasants and more than 200 signatures were gathered in a document to support and express solidarity with the peasants. We share the link to the signature for the document:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSev1W1312CSU-vwygPyWrYLKUI9uewZ0KUN7TABsM79xJAWFQ/viewform
The students and many organizations made a big event of solidarity at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) with more than 150 attendants. A demonstration was carried out and a representative of the peasants of Barro Branco made a speech, in which the following statement stood out: “They tried to do what they wanted with the peasants of Barro Branco and we gave the appropriate response. We defend in the Barro Branco Association the principles of the Agrarian Revolution highlighted by the League of Poor Peasants, which has been clearly saying since 2023 that we are experiencing a reactionary Civil War in the countryside and the peasantry has to organize their self-defense groups to struggle!”.
The repression and the attacks by latifundium have proved to be useless to prevent the peasants to continue their activity in the area. After the battle and some operations against them, the peasantry has continued working the land and repairing damages caused by the attacks of the goons. They have spread their struggle among other peasants, distributing leaflets among other residents of the area. They noticed as well that they were filmed by the goons.
Barro Branco shows how is developing the context of war in the Brazilian countryside, with increasing mobilization of the peasantry, attacks by the latifundium and resistance against it, as well as increasing politicization and mobilization of the peasantry and the solidarity from other sectors with the struggle for land, such as from the student movement. As an example, in the same area, Pernambuco, other attacks by the latifundium and the old Brazilian State took place on the last weeks: for example on October 9, around 500 peasant families were evicted from Santa Maria da Boa Vista, and MST members were violently repressed by the Brazilian police. But just few days after the peasantry retook the lands there. Also in the bordering area of Zona da Mata paraibana, between Pernambuco and Paraíba, AND made an extensive reportage on the threats and attacks faced by the peasantry, who faced harassment by the goons who are destroying houses, making gunshots against the peasant encampment organized by the MST, as well as they faced a military base erected by mercenaries. Those mercenaries are preventing the peasants to work the land.
The LCP highlighted how is developing the situation nowadays: “Under these conditions, there is only one path for peasants, indigenous peoples and Quilombolas: the path of the Agrarian Revolution, as an inseparable part of the New Democratic Revolution. Only by revolutionizing the countryside, destroying the latifundium and its old State, will the masses be able to win the sacred right to land for those who live and work on it. The Agrarian Revolution is the destruction, in practice, of these semi-feudal relations of production that have been in force in the countryside since the origin of the Brazilian nation (five centuries); today, the Agrarian Revolution, moreover, is the defeat in practice of the extreme right. As the great Peruvian revolutionary Mariátegui established, the struggle for land is always violent and therefore touches on the political question of Power from the beginning. Under the leadership of the revolutionary working class, the insurgent Brazilian peasantry advances with each struggle towards the construction of a New Power.” After that, made a call to the peasantry of the state of Pernambuco: “The National Commission of the Poor Peasants’ Leagues and the LCP Northeast call on all land struggle organizations in the state of Pernambuco, from the Sertão to the Coast, and peasants, indigenous peoples and Quilombolas from all over the country, to mobilize to confront and defeat the Bolsonaro paramilitary hordes of the far-right “Invasão Zero”, in every situation that arises and to support the struggle of the squatters of Barro Branco.”
1We recommend our readers to read this article by AND explaining what is the movement “Invasão Zero”: https://anovademocracia.com.br/pe-quem-e-o-movimento-invasao-zero-em-pernambuco/
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