New attacks by far-right landlords against peasants
We share an unofficial translation of the note of the League of Poor Peasant of Rondônia and Western Amazonia published in Resistência Camponesa
New attacks by far-right big landlords against peasants
Paramilitary groups of big landlords cowardly attacked peasants struggling for the sacred right to land, in two more sinister events that took place in Humaitá and Cujubim, in the first half of August. The first of these took place in the Ipixuna community, in the rural area of Humaitá, in southern Amazonas: three gunmen invaded the home of a couple and executed them in cold blood, on the night of August 3rd. According to press reports, they were killed with more than 5 shots each, in the head and chest; witnesses heard several cries of help from the couple and sounds of beatings before the gunshots, indicating that they were tortured before being murdered.
The executed man is known by peasants fighting for the land as Fumaça, he and his wife Cleide Silva moved from Rondônia to Amazonas and were supporting a takeover of a large estate, which is why they were killed. It is said in the locality that big landlords in the region exchanged information on their social networks about the arrival in the Ipixuna region of “people from the LCP of Rondônia” to organize land seizures. Press reports also corroborate that those who ordered the brutal murder of Fumaça and Cleide are big landlords in the region: “the couple was involved in a land dispute and had already been receiving death threats from people who claimed ownership of the land” .
The second attack by far-right big landlords took place on line B90, in Cujubim, on the border with Rio Crespo, on August 12. About 60 big landlords and gunmen attacked the newly built camp with guns, arrested 7 peasants and burned their motorcycles. The big landlords themselves, in recordence that circulate on their social networks, confess their crimes proudly: “we finish of the landless”, “we arrested 7 vagabonds”, “they where shot” .
Listen below to the audio of the conversation between the big landlords (click to load):
https://resistenciacamponesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ataque_paramilitares_Cujubim-1.mp3?_=1
https://resistenciacamponesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ataque_paramilitares_Cujubim-2.mp3?_=2
https://resistenciacamponesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ataque_paramilitares_Cujubim-3.mp3?_=3
Military police from Ariquemes, Jaru, Cujubim and Machadinho arrived during the attack by the big landlords and goons and, as always, applauded the criminals and repressed the peasants, arresting 25 who lived in the camp in total, including women and elderly people.
Despite always trying to hide his role as a guard dog for the big estate, Lieutenant Colonel of the Military Police Rudinei, commander of the repressive operation, in an interview with the police program Bronca da Pesada ended up confessing his connivance and apology for the crime of pistol shooting: “We managed to do it there, with the support from residents, to detain 25 people” .
Reproduction of the police program on the action of big landlords, goons and MPs. Source: Resistência Camponesa
But once again, the bourgeois press presented the poor peasants as bandits and the proof for this slander was an old hunting rifle, several machetes and cell phones found with the families! As for the heavily armed landlords and goons, not a word.
“Do they think that the people won’t get back?”
Before big landlords had already personally joined forces with the police and goons to repress and evict peasants struggling for land in Nova Brasilândia, on March 5th, and on RO 257, in Machadinho D’Oeste, in early May.
Audio of the mobilization of big landlords and goons (click to load):
Also in August, the press of Rondônia revived Evandro Caetano de Brito*, a Bolsonarist, police admirer, denounced in 2017 for wearing a Military Police uniform, participating in training and operations, without being a police officer.
* Evandro Caetano de Brito is accused of a gun attack against the headquarters of the electronic newspaper Rondoniaovivo, in November 2022. It is reported in the media that this attack, typical of the extreme right, would have been a retaliation for the editorial line being critical of the demonstrations of coup leaders in front of army barracks in Porto Velho.
When Evandro was denounced for acting as a police officer, he was working in the office of the then State deputy, Jesuíno Boabaid, president of the Association of Police Oficcers and Family Members of the Military Police and BM of Rondônia (Assfapom). He lost lawsuits he filed in court for slander and defamation.
This shows that the military institution of Rondônia maintains its tradition unchanged, since the Heroic Peasant Battle of Corumbiara, in 1995, when it lent uniforms to goons belonging to the big landlords of the ‘southern cone’ who helped them in the torture and slaughter of the surrendered and unarmed poor peasants.
And it never hurts to emphasize that all military police obey the policy determined by the High Command of the Army, through its Inspectorate General of the Military Police, in addition to obeying the governors, as is common knowledge.
The big landlords and their dogs, with and without of uniform, are part of the elements of far-right that Bolsonaro’s candidacy has recruited across the country. They tend to become more resentful after the demoralization they suffered with the boss’s electoral defeat, with the advancement of investigations and denunciations of the coup, acts of January 8, the murder of councilor Marielle and the scandalous corruption of Bolsonaro, family and cronies.
But all the violence of the big landlords and the goons of the old State only reveals the fear they have of the people’s organized and combative struggle. You are mistaken, gentlemen, if you think that the people, especially the peasants, have forgotten all their heinous crimes and will passively accept so much oppression. Sooner rather than later, the peasantry will rise up in great waves of land seizures, treading the path of the Agrarian Revolution, which will definitively sweep away the large estates and their rural “green chickens” [Translator’s note: term used for the followers of Bolsonaro].
Struggling for land is not a crime!
Land for those who live and work in it!
Conquer the land, destroy the latifundio!
LCP – League of Poor Peasants of Rondônia and Western Amazon
August 29th, 2023
