Gunmen attack Liga dos Camponeses Pobres encampment in Rondônia, Brazil
Private militias of the big landlord have attacked a poor peasant encampment in Pimenta Bueno, Rondônia, Brazil. Gunmen have been going around and threatening and shooting at the inhabitants, who took cover in the nearby forest. The encampment is run by Liga dos Camponeses Pobres (LCP). 30 families have been living and tilling their own land since 2016. The gunmen were acting for the benefit of the former owner of the land, and with the guardianship of the military police, who arrested three peasants who denounced the attacks.
The same encampment was a target of an attack in 2021, when the military police illegally arrested 30 poor peasants and destroyed their homes with the rumor-based claim that the peasants were responsible of the death of the big landlord Heladio Cândido Senn.
The encampments led by the LCP are proving to be successful: the encampment of Tiago Campin dos Santos, Rondônia is one example of this. There the peasants are harvesting the fruits of their own labor and a popular school is under construction. The old state tries to destroy these achievements by cowardly attacks. In January, the BOPE (Special Operations Battalion) and the military police, accompanied once again by gunmen of the big landlord, tortured and murdered two peasants and terrorized families at the encampment. The operation was called by the governor of the state of Rondônia, Marcos Rocha, to attempt to evict the poor peasants from their land.
AND writes that since the start of the year over 17,000 peasants have taken part in land occupations all over Brazil. The old state, headed by Lula, has started another campaign of repression to contain the rebellion of the peasants. Some recent examples of the large-scale occupations include the massive mobilizations in Bahia, where in February 9,500 peasants in total from the start of the year had mobilized in the struggle for land. Thousands occupied large estates in Alagoas, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná during the ”Red Carnival” led by the FNL (Frente Nacional de Luta – Campo e Cidade; National Front of Struggle – Countryside and City). In the end of March, 600 peasant families occupied the São Lukas Farm, in the municipality of Hidrolândia, in Goiás. These occupations also faced repression from the military police.
