Gunmen attack peasants struggling for land in North of Minas Gerais and Pará, Brazil
Image credits: AND
The military police and private militias of the big landlords again attack poor peasants who are struggling for their right to land in Brazil.
The Liga dos Camponeses Pobres denounces the criminal acts of Military Police (MP), which not only allows the private militias of the big landlords to go around freely, threatening the poor peasants with large caliber weapons, but also protects them in Verdelândia, in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil.
”The movement [LCP] affirms that the criminal acts of the police remind of the times of the military regime, the epoch of the great struggles of peasants in northern Minas, especially the Heroic Resistance of Cachoeirinha, which faced severe repression of Colonel Georgino, who persecuted, chased, tortured and killed poor peasants to to expel hundreds of occupants from their lands”, writes AND. Brazil was ruled by a military regime from 1964 to 1985. The LCP also says that similarly to the times of the military regime, the MP and the private militias are trying to prevent the right to assembly by harassing the meetings of poor peasants.
According to the LCP the big landlords are afraid, because the poor peasants have recently expressed their demand for the lands of Fazenda Guanabara 2, which are illegally held by the big landlord.
AND writes:
”The LCP affirms that no landlord terror will stop this just desire of the peasant masses of the North of Minas, and that the landowners “will not have peace, while the lands stolen from the poor peasants do not return to the true owners and the suffering caused and the blood spilled do not be avenged!””
On April 10th in São Félix do Xingu, in the state of Pará, gunmen ambushed and murdered a peasant named Lindomar Dias de Souza, who was participating in a attempt to recover houses that were illegally taken over by the private militias, reports Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT). This happened at the occupation of Divino Pai Eterno, where the struggle over the lands has been going on since 2008. The attacks on peasants have been increasing especially since November 2022. Since 2008, seven peasants of the encampment have been killed by gunmen. The State is present in the area but does not react to the violations to the rights of the poor peasants. In 2017, Pau D’arco massacre took place in Pará, and after this, 12 peasant leaders have been killed in the south and southeast of the state.
